Week 52 Bible Reading: John 1:1–5, 9–14

The Word [Jesus] became a man and lived among us. We saw his glory—the glory that belongs to the only Son of the Father. - John 1:14 ICB

For a long time, people have loved watching the Star Wars movies. Whether you enjoy them or not, maybe this quote by a writer named Frank Pallotta helps you see why people like them. He said they show us “a new hope and a force of good at a time when the world needs heroes.”

That’s something people are always looking for. Even in Jesus’s day.

At the time of Jesus’s birth, the people of Israel were feeling down. They wanted their long-promised Messiah to come. They thought He would be a hero who would deliver them from the terrible Romans.

But Jesus did not come as a political or military hero. Instead, He came as a baby. Maybe that’s why many people missed who He was. The apostle John wrote, “He came to the world that was his own. But his own people did not accept him” (John 1:11 ICB).

Jesus is much more than a hero. He is our Savior. He was born to bring God’s light into the darkness and to give His life so that everyone who receives Him could be forgiven and freed from the power of sin.

“Some people did accept him. They believed in him. To them he gave the right to become children of God” (v. 12 ICB). That’s why Jesus is the one true hope we all need—whether you are eight or eighteen.

When George Lucas first started thinking about the movie concept that became Star Wars, he wanted a fun movie that was aimed at fourteen- and fifteen-year-olds.