John 1:12 Isaiah prophesies “To them I will give in My house and within My walls, a memorial and a name better and more enduring than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off“. John writes of the true Light, a fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, the perfect and steadfast Light that illumines everyone. He writes of One Who came into the world…the One the world didn’t recognize, He came to His own…and they didn’t receive Him. What blinded them that they couldn’t see the Light, what caused them to know the scriptures and yet reject Him? Was it getting too…personal? Was it easier to manage, safer to leave things as they are, to do things the way they’ve always been done? Did they miss receiving Him because their lives would change? What was the difference between their hearts and the hearts of those who received Him? Those who would receive the authority to become children of God? Not owing their birth to the will of the flesh, but to God? Was it…is it as simple, as deep as the chasm between Pride and Humility? And what do we understand about the authority, the power, the right to become a child of God? The authority over what, if not the authority over the darkness? It’s the power to do righteousness, to cast down wicked and evil thoughts and words, to exercise to self control. The right to be an heir of the kingdom of God. We have something to Hope in, something to look forward to, something far greater than we could even imagine. Receiving Him is the choice of a humble heart that recognizes its own desperate need for God. Remaining humble, desperate… requires a life of surrender. Lord, we desperately need You…we want to be counted as children of God, our names written by Your hand, in Your Book. Reveal to us any prideful or rebellious spirit that we might exercise the authority and power that comes from You, to cast it out. And we just want to sit here for a a while…in Your presence.