Search and Rescue

“For the Son of Man has come to seek and save that which was lost”  Luke 19:10 KJV  

The end of every year is a fitting time to take stock of our lives.  We count our failures and successes, our blessings and our losses, and we look at where we have been and where we are going.

Many of us will make resolutions to change some aspect of our behavior in 2017.  We may want to lose weight, or get in better physical condition or to get promoted at work or develop better personal relationships, but for most of us when night falls on 2017, most of those resolutions will still be unfulfilled, shuffled forward to another year as we continue in a never-ending desire to become a better us.

Our newest release is The Invitation, the story of a man trapped in a miserable existence who unexpectedly one night receives an engraved invitation to begin a new life.  Kevin treats the invitation as a joke and does not respond, but the next morning when he awakens, his circumstances have profoundly changed. As the story progresses, though, Kevin learns that it is not enough to simply enjoy his new surroundings.  He must find a way to accept the invitation for himself and fully embrace the new life that it offers.

We just finished celebrating Christmas, and we looked at nativities and sang songs of the child in the manger, but Christmas is so much more than a sweet story about a little baby who was born in a stable.  The cave in which Jesus was born is symbolic of the tomb where He was laid after his crucifixion, and the swaddling clothes in which his parents wrapped him represent the grave cloths.  He did not come to earth to be a good man or a good teacher—He was born to die for us in the greatest search and rescue operation of all time.  The God of the universe looked down and saw our lonely, lost, dysfunctional world—a world which we were powerless to change—and loved us so much that He sent His only Son to save us. Jesus is our Kinsman Redeemer who came to release our debt, and He extends to each of us the greatest invitation we will ever be offered. But for His invitation to impact us, we must recognize the immense opportunity which we have been offered; then we must be willing to accept it for ourselves and fully embrace our new life.

As we start the New Year, I invite each of you to see 2017 as more than an opportunity for a new resolution.  2017 can be a year for a rescue—a year for salvation and a new life.  Accept God’s invitation to you in 2017. “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

Alexandra and Joyce Swann's newest novel, The Invitation, was released Christmas of 2016.  For more information, visit their website at http://www.frontier2000.net.