There are moments when Scripture suddenly feels like a window swinging open in a dark room. Psalm 119:130 says that when God’s words are unfolded—opened up, explained, and received—they bring light and give understanding to those who might feel simple or small. That is incredibly hopeful. God is not looking for the already-wise and already-impressive; He delights to shine into ordinary minds and teach humble hearts. Today is an invitation to let Him do that in you—to move from skimming verses to actually unfolding them with Him.

Seeing Beneath the Surface

Think of God’s Word like a letter that has layers folded inside. You can glance at the outside and know it is from Him, but the light comes when you actually open it and keep opening it—line by line, promise by promise, command by command. “The precepts of the LORD are right, bringing joy to the heart; the commandments of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes” (Psalm 19:8). When you slow down, ask questions, and linger over a passage, the Spirit uses that “unfolding” to brighten what was once confusing or dull.

This isn’t about being a Bible scholar; it is about being teachable. God loves to give clarity to people who admit they need it. James writes, “Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5). Bring your questions, your doubts, your sins, and your decisions to the text. As you open the Bible with a humble heart, you will find that the Bible starts to open you—and in that opening, light pours in.

Light for Ordinary Hearts

“The unfolding of Your words gives light; it informs the simple” (Psalm 119:130). That phrase “the simple” is not an insult; it is a door of mercy. It means those who are not wise in their own eyes, those who know they don’t have it all figured out. If you feel spiritually behind, easily confused, or weak in courage, this verse is for you. God is not asking you to be brilliant—He is asking you to be honest and to come. His light does what your mind and will cannot do on their own.

Jesus perfectly fulfills this promise. He said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). As His words dwell in you, your thinking, desiring, and choosing begin to change. You start to see sin for what it is, lies for what they are, and Christ for who He truly is. Ordinary people, with open Bibles and open hearts, become steady and wise—not because they are great, but because His light is.

Walk in What You See

When God shines through His Word, it is never merely to inform you; it is to transform you. Paul tells us that “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16–17). Illumination leads to instruction, conviction, and correction. The light that comforts you will also confront you, and that is a gift. Let today’s insight become today’s obedience.

As the Lord unfolds His Word to you, decide in advance that you will respond, not just reflect. If He exposes a sin, confess and turn. If He highlights a promise, trust it in a specific situation. If He reveals a command, arrange your schedule, habits, and relationships around it. In a dark world, “you shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life” (Philippians 2:15–16). You don’t create the light—you carry it, by walking in what He has shown you.

Lord, thank You for the light of Your Word. Help me today not only to see what You show me, but to act on it with faith and obedience.

There is a well-known saying which I think originated with the French, that the more things change the more they remain the same.

The wisdom of this saying may be seen in almost every department of human life, the reason probably being that of all the things that change and still remain unchanged, there is no better example than human nature itself.

And when do we see the unchanging quality of human nature more perfectly than at Christmas-time? Consider the radical difference between today's world and the world into which the Baby Jesus was born. Compared with our twentieth-century civilization, everything surrounding the wondrous Child was crude and primitive. Jesus was born in a stable, not in a hospital; His mother was attended by a midwife, not by a skilled scientist; His baby face was lighted by a tallow candle, not by an electric bulb; He traveled into Egypt on the back of the lowly burro, not by auto or streamlined train.

He, taking her by the hand, called, saying, Maiden, arise. And her spirit returned, and she rose up immediately. - Luke 8:54-55

"Maiden, arise!" All the circumstances of the miracle are marked by the most lovely consideration, on Christ’s part, of the timidity of the little girl of twelve years of age. It is because of that that He seeks to raise her in privacy, whereas the son of the widow of Nain, and Lazarus, were raised amidst a crowd. It is because of that that He selects as His companions in the room only the three chief apostles as witnesses, and the father and mother of the child. It is because of that He puts forth His hand and grasps hers, in order that the child’s eyes when they open should see only the loving faces of parents, and the not less loving face of the Master; and that her hand, when it began to move again, should clasp, first. His own tender hand. It is for the same reason that the remarkable appendix to the miracle is given - "He commanded that they should give her food." Surely that is an inimitable note of truth. No legend-manufacturer would have dared to drop down to such a homely word as that, after such a word as " Maiden, arise!" An economy of miraculous power is shown here, such as was shown when, after Lazarus came forth, other hands had to untie the grave-clothes which tripped him as he stumbled along. Christ will do by miracle what is needful and not one hair’s breadth more. In His calm majesty He bethinks Himself of the hungry child, and leaves to others the task of giving her food. That homely touch is, to me, indicative of the simple veracity of the historian.

But the life-giving word itself - what can we say about it? Only this one thing: here Jesus Christ exercises a manifest Divine prerogative. It was no more the syllables that He spoke than it was the touch of His hand that raised that child. What was it? The forth-putting of His will, which went away straight into the darkness; and if the disembodied spirit was in a locality, went straight there, and, somehow or other, laid hold of the spirit, and, somehow or other, reinstated it in its home. Christ’s will, like the king’s writ, runs through all the universe. "He spake, and it was done " - whose prerogative is that? God’s; and God manifest in the flesh exercised it. The words of the Incarnate Word have power over physical things.

Here, too, is the prelude and first-fruits of our resurrection. Not that there are not wide differences between the raising of this child and that future resurrection to which Christian hope looks forward, but that in this one little incident - little compared with the majestic scale of the latter - there come out these two things: the demonstration that conscious life runs on, irrespective of the accident of its being united with or separated from a bodily organization; and the other, that Jesus Christ has power over men’s spirits, and can fit them at His will to bodies appropriate to their condition. Time is no element in the case. What befalls the particles of the human frame is no element in the case. " Thou sowest not the body that shall be." But if that Lord had the power, which He showed in that one chamber, with that one child, then, as a little window may show us great matters, so we see through this single incident the time when " they that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth."