Things change big time when kindness and love show up. It's a law as sure as gravity. When these two get introduced into any situation, things automatically change. Hearts melt. Agendas shift. Anxieties cease. Relationships mend. People unite. The air clears.

The Bible tells us that KINDNESS and LOVE have radically appeared. They've shown up wonderfully in Jesus. That's the story of Christmas.

And they'll keep showing up big time whenever Jesus gets lifted up and the gospel story is told. Whenever He becomes big and dominant in our lives, kindness and love will prevail.

It's inevitable. Look forward to it playing out again and again!

But like a good play in basketball, there's a little more to be seen, a few more scoring options, a progression to note. Whenever we allow Jesus to enter our situations, when He appears BEFORE US, there are two other ways kindness and love will max out:

WITHIN US: When His love and kindness appear before us, they then will get into us. They infect. They find a way to the heart level and make our souls swell. We become kind and loving. It's a beautiful thing.

FROM US: When kindness and love get to the heart level, they give birth to more. Because they have appeared before us and within us, they also then flow from us. This multiplication will happen.

Reflect: Have you seen the kindness and love of God our Savior lately? How much kindness and love is birthing and forming IN you? Where is kindness and love flowing FROM you and being expressed? Where and with whom do you want it to show up more?

A prayer to consider: LORD Jesus, Your kindness and love have appeared to me. It's true, and I know it. And it keeps on coming. O, how I praise You. May Your kindness and love continue to mark me within. I want others to experience this as it's multiplied powerfully through me. Amen.

"Nothing can make our life, or the lives of other people, more beautiful than perpetual kindness." --Leo Tolstoy