“We do not live to ourselves and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s”. – Romans 14: 7-8. My dear brothers and sisters, we are God’s own. We are children of God. Nothing can separate us from God’s love. We belong to God and we matter to God. “Know that the Lord is God. It is he that made us and we are his; we are his and the sheep of his pasture”. – Psalm 100:3.

God has created human beings in his likeness and in his image to be his own children. That is why he promises us in his word saying, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine”. – Isaiah 43:1. Just like a father in the world looks after his children from the time they are born and is there at all times to protect his children from harm, danger and all that can destroy his children; in the same way God is with his children at all times. “See what love the Father has given us that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are”. – John 3:1.

Jesus said to Thomas, “have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe”. – John 20: 29. The very gift of the Holy Bible tells us to believe in Jesus and if we truly believe in him, he will work wonders in our lives. Jesus said to Martha, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God”. – John 11:40.

When the sun sets, we know that very soon the same sun will rise and there will be brightness again. When a tree sheds its leaves, we know that in due time the same tree will grow new leaves again. When a flower dies, we know that the same plant will have another bud that is waiting to bloom. When we abandon our Lord Jesus Christ, many of us do not know that there will be no light, no growth and no life in our lives. But if we hold on to Jesus there is a ray of hope that will surely bring us out from darkness into light, from bondage of sin to freedom, from the pit to the land of the living. So that what had been spoken to prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled, “the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death, light has dawned.”- Matt. 4:16.