By BRANDON YOUNG

Recently, I was listening to the song, “What a Wonderful World,” by Louis Armstrong when the Lord spoke to my heart! Here are the lyrics:

I see trees of green
Red roses too
I see them bloom
For me and you
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world

I see skies of blue
And clouds of white
The bright blessed day
The dark sacred night
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world

The colors of the rainbow
So pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces
Of people going by
I see friends shaking hands
Saying, “How do you do?”
They’re really saying
“I love you”

I hear babies cry
I watch them grow
They’ll learn much more
Than I’ll never know
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world

As I listened to the song, the repetitive words “I see” stood out to me. God asked me, “Have you looked around you lately to see the wonders of this world?” These lovely things are everywhere if we would choose to look at them. It seems we always see the bad and troublesome things in this world, but we blatantly look over the good things. The difficult things of life are easy to see, and for the most part they stay on our minds, and we speak of them often. You can find folks on any given day speaking about how bad the world is, and for the most part, it is Christians that do so! I agree there is definitely evil in this world, but the Bible tells us that where good is, evil is always present. So, that means the world is also filled with good!
In the book of Genesis, we read that God created a perfect world. The earth was dark, empty of life, and without form, and then God spoke these words, “Let there be light!” With these words, God began the creation process. Light was the first wonderful thing God created. It shone into the darkness and the earth began to take shape, and He filled the earth with his creation. In fact, God proclaimed all the creation good, and he exclaimed humanity was very good. God then gave humans a choice when he planted a tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden. He commanded that they not eat of the fruit of this tree, but we all know the rest of this story. The perfect world God created was cursed by sin, but God had another plan. Isaiah 7:14-16 states, “14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. 15 Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. 16 For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.”
God chose to send his perfect Son into this sinful world, so he could choose the good over the evil, and be a perfect sacrifice, nailing the curse of humanity to the tree of Calvary, and forgiving all the sins of mankind. Galatians 3:13-14 says, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: 14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” Once again as in the beginning of time, God brought light into the darkness when he sent his perfect Son into this world. On a dark night, a group of lowly shepherds heard this proclamation, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” The glory of the Lord shone round about these men, and they were in awe at what they had seen!
Jesus had come to make the world a wonderful place once more! I am positive that God did not give his Son to die so we could be miserable and live our lives in doubt, discouragement, and depression! Jesus came to bring good tidings of great joy to ALL people! He wants us to see the good and to be the good in this world. We allow the things of this world to smother out our light, and this world needs our light more now than ever! The world is not a miserable place, but our attitude and reaction to the things around us make us discouraged. We often choose misery, but we refuse to see the good. The wonders of almighty God are all around us! From the sixth hour until the ninth hour while Jesus was on the cross, the earth was completely dark, but praise be to the Lamb of God, at the ninth hour, the light returned! Jesus did not leave this world in darkness. Let’s choose to see the light in this world. As we start a new year, may we know that we live in a wonderful world filled with the amazing things of God.
(The Solution Column is provided by Pastor Brandon Young of Harmony Free Will Baptist Church, Hampton, and his associate, Hunter Greene)