12  Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God--

13  children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

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The apostle John was a man of contrasts. He saw things as black or white, good or evil, light or dark. And when, at the beginning of his Gospel, he contemplated the entrance of the Word into the world, he saw another contrast--those who accepted Jesus, the Word, and those who rejected him.

Amazingly, many of Jesus and John's own people rejected Jesus.Most didn't recognize who he was, and refused to believe when Jesus showed them who he was. But others believed his words and accepted all that his name stood for. They saw Jesus as their Savior and Shepherd. They believed he was both God and man. These people received the greatest of all gifts--they became children of God.

While all people are God's creation, not all people are his children. That privilege is reserved only for believers. As God's children, believers possess his Spirit--his life.

Think for a minute about the differences between being just a part of God's creation and being God's own child. Have you accepted this privileged status? Are you a child of God? How is that special status revealed in your daily life?