Emphasis Preaching Journal

Some of us still carry in our memories the voice of the late Gabriel Heater, eminent radio news commentator of yesteryear. Invariably, he began his broadcast with the words, "I've got good news tonight!" That's what we wanted to hear. At the end of the day when perhaps things had not gone as we had planned or when the country teetered on the edge of some crisis, there was something refreshing, encouraging, about his announcement, "I've got good news tonight!" His attitude, material, and consistency somehow conveyed the impression that, no matter what the situation, there was the promise of better things to come.

That is a wonderful thought, isn't it? The promise that the best is yet to come. At age seventy, Victor Hugo composed a beautiful piece in which he optimistically extolled the future before him. He remarked that his life was like a forest once cut down, but suddenly new shoots were bursting up everywhere "stronger and livelier than ever." He felt the sunshine on his head. The best was yet to come.

To the oppressed, such a promise may, understandably, be received as a shout in the wind. To those who suffer or grieve, it may be dismissed as a pipe dream. But to the people of God it is the tested and tried theme of the eternal forward march. Regardless of circumstance, the good news is that things will get better for those whose greatest ache is to love God.