What was it about Jesus that touched people so deeply that caused the sick, the blind, the poor to gather around him?  Why did the outcasts of society feel wanted and welcomed, loved and accepted in his presence?  Whatever it was, it was powerful - and it still is.  Here is how James Francis expressed it on that classic piece entitled, One Solitary Life;

Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, child of a peasant woman.  he grew up in another obscure village.  He worked in a carpenter's shop until he was 30, then for three years he was an itinerant preacher.  He never wrote a book.  He never held an office.  He never owned a home.  He never had a family.  He never went to college.  He never traveled 200 miles from the place that he was born.  He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness.  He had no credentials but himself... While still a young man the tide of popular opinion turned against him.  His friends ran away.  One of them denied him.  Another betrayed him.  He was turned over to his enemies.  He went through the mockery of a trial.  He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves.  His executioners gambled for the only piece of property he had on earth while he was dying, and that was his coat.  When he was dead, he was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

Nineteen wide centuries have come and gone and today he is the center of the human race, and the leader of the column of progress.  I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that have ever marched, and all the navies that were ever built, and all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings who ever reigned, put together have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has this one solitary life.

Prayer:  Loving God, we thank you for the rest of the night and the beauty of a new day... help us to make it a masterpiece.  Drive away the shadows of discouragement and loneliness.  Outfit us with joy and excitement for a new day, when we shall walk in the way of Christ Jesus.  Amen.