Three years ago my friend bought a UP! (My cousin always said it like: “UP exclamation point”.) When I first met him after he bought the car, I couldn’t stop talking about it. Immediately after the meeting, we had to go downstairs to show me how wonderful he had bought.

When we got to the car, I couldn’t stop singing praises. The steering wheel was equipped with a large number of buttons. It had speed control and even parking assistance; I don’t know why, because the car is so small that it fits in the smallest place. It has ABS and EBD and it looks like, he said, the rest of the alphabet.

And all that at 20 km / l! He just couldn’t stop talking. He was passionate about it and as we walked away he kept looking back with that look in his eyes. I had to smile and wondered if his wife should feel threatened …

And all that about a small car with only a 1000cc engine. My friend used to drive a double cab. How could one go on like this with a car like this? Have you lost your marbles?

Two and a half years later, he was looking to sell the car and, he said, as long as the price he won covered what he still owed on the car. My ears perked up immediately, because Mom’s car didn’t look so good anymore. We took the exclamation point UP for a spin and after 1 km we decided that it would be stupid not to buy it.

And it really is an amazing car! I can’t stop talking about it. I tell everyone who wants to listen and even those who don’t want to listen, what a brilliant little German car it is. I often close with this observation: “He is the most forgotten hero in the motor industry!”

So what changed? You have to experience it personally to really see how great and good it is. Talking about it is not always enough.

And it’s the same with Jesus. You can’t really see how amazing Jesus is and how wonderful his works here on earth, until you experience it personally. Do you realize that, next to God, Jesus is the most amazing person in the universe?

4… the Son took his place of honor high in the heavens alongside God, far higher than any angel in rank and government.

And He and God decided that He would sacrifice His life for us sinners on a wooden cross, so that we would not drop like flies and die. His almighty work opened the door to heaven for us! We’re free! We have hope! We have no end! We live forever.

All of this made possible by the greatest, most loving and gracious Jesus, the Son of God.

If these are just words to you, you won’t understand. But if you realize how sinful you are and that you do not deserve to go to heaven and are saved only through the act of grace of Jesus, experience it in your body, your life and your being, then, like me, you will fall to your knees . and say thank you. But more than that. So, out of gratitude, you will want to help others feel and experience it, because Jesus, the most almighty Son of God in the universe, is the only Answer.

Go do it now!

Holy Scripture
Hebrews 1: 1-4

Reflection
Do you know how sinful you are?
Do you experience Jesus?
Do you show others how wonderful you are?

Pray
Jesus, King of the world, how great you are! You are greater than anything or anyone in the universe and you decided to come to earth. You came and saved my life. You came and saved everyone else’s life. Please help me to help them experience you personally. Amen.