1 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.
—The words of the Apostle John from Revelation 1:1-3
Almost everyone knows A. A. Milne’s character called “Winnie-the-Pooh?” Do you know Pooh Bear?
Well then, you know that Winnie-the-Pooh is a very special friend of a little boy named Christopher Robin. You probably also know that Winnie-the-Pooh lives in the forest and has a very special something that he likes to eat. Do you remember what that special something is?
That’s right. Winnie-the-Pooh likes to eat honey. In fact, Pooh will go to great lengths to get a hold of some honey.
One day, Rabbit and Piglet went to visit Winnie-the-Pooh. They knocked on Winnie-the-Pooh’s door and waited for the bear to answer. When Pooh opened the door, Piglet said, “Hi, Pooh-bear. I have good news and I have bad news.”“The good news is that Rabbit and I have found a very large mess of honey for you.”
“Wonderful,” Winnie-the-Pooh exclaimed.
“The bad news,” Piglet continued, “is that the honey is near the top of a very tall tree.”
“Oh,” Winnie-the-Pooh responded.
“The good news,” Piglet continued, “is that there are lots of branches near to the ground to make it easy for you to climb the tree.”
“That’s great!” Winnie-the-Pooh smiled in anticipation.
“The bad news,” Piglet went on, “is that the bark of that tree is really slippery, so you are likely to slip when you start climbing.”
“Oh,” Winnie-the-Pooh whispered, and sadly sat down on the ground.
“The good news,” Piglet said once more...
And, so it continued, back and forth. First the good news and then the bad news. First the good news, and then the bad news. Minute by minute. Hour by hour.
Sometimes, our lives can be a little bit like that exchange between Piglet and Winnie-the-Pooh. First we get some good news and then we get some bad news. It was that way for the Church back at the time, many hundreds of years ago, when the Apostle John wrote the Book of Revelation in the Bible.
Inspired by the Holy Spirit, first John would share some good news with the church, and then he would share some bad news. And, do you know why he would do that? He would do that so that the people in the church would learn about how God expected them to live their lives.
So the next time someone says to you that they have good news and bad news, just remember that it is probably a time when you are going to have to do some serious learning. Okay?
Will you pray with me?
Thank You, God, for loving me. Thank You for giving me the good news about Your Son, Jesus. Please help me, whether I get good news or bad news, to always try to learn whatever You want to teach me. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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