At this time of year, something weird happens to human hair.  Static electricity slithers its way into our frost laden prairie.  No amount of hair spray or styling products can fully eliminate it.  Hair simply does its own thing.  The same thing is true when you’ve been snuggled up under a nice toasty blanket, put on your slippers and reach for the light switch.  Electrical charges have no problem waking you out of your semi-slumbering state. Electricity indicates power. It fills our homes with light and energy to operate all our various appliances.  Now we’re able to speak a word and an electronic device will set those appliances into motion without our even touching them.  That device requires the same power that makes hair fly and gives us shocks.

Can you imagine what life would be like without electricity?  We’d be using candles to read by – campfires to spin stories at – fire to heat our food and hand washing our clothing down at the creek and stones as a washboard.  Praise God for allowing man to discover this wonderful force and helping him to contain it somewhat. Unfortunately, as with most of man’s discoveries, they’re often abused, thus creating problems within the environment. We may think we’ve lassoed power, but we’ve just moved it from one place to another.

During the creation of the earth, magnetic forces must’ve been flying and electrical impulses pulsating through the air, like a zillion arrows at one time.  At the time of Jesus’ birth, that same power was surging through the skies as angel armies sang His praises.  When He died on the cross, a power so great was able to pierce through the sky and divide the thick curtain in the temple. No more would man be separated from God. When Jesus showed His dominion over death and the devil, His face shone with a radiance that couldn’t be replicated.  At the Pentecost, the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and tongues of fire danced above their heads.  That Spirit would permit them to unleash a force never before felt.

We know God is omnipotent – all powerful.  A portion of His power has been planted within us at our baptism, through the Holy Spirit, but we can never harness the vastness of it.  Only God has the wherewithal to hold it in His hands. Are we shining as beacons for those who need to know about God and His love?  Are we electrified with the message of hope?  Jesus gave that charge – that commission – to His followers, when He told them to go and tell everyone about what had been accomplished through Him.  The stunning message of forgiveness for all and the hope of life eternal is the charge that can reignite our floundering world.

“The Holy Ghost bears witness to us of the truth and impresses upon our souls the reality of God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, so surely that no earthly power or authority can separate us from that knowledge.”   James E. Faust