Introducing someone is easy enough if the person is there with you.
Introducing someone who is not present requires you to describe the person in terms that accurately portray who that person is.

For example, in a small rural community where populations are stable and folks know each other for generations, you might describe someone who is returning from many years abroad by saying, "She is aunt Grace's youngest daughter." The person might add, "oh yes, that would make her Florence and Stanley Ferguson's granddaughter. I know who she is."
That is pretty much what Matthew does with Jesus. He brings out the family tree and starts his narrative by locating Jesus in the family tree. He begins with Abraham, through David right through to Jesus. Thus his pedigree and roots are described to people who would know and care.

John's on the other hand is how a more philosophical and poetically minded person might describe someone. He might say something like, "Ok, imagine all the characteristics of the perfect person and friend and imagine all of that from God totally in one person. That is Jesus"

Luke the gentile physician who had never met Jesus was in Judea with his friend Paul. He says he took the opportunity of . . .

I imagine it was about dusk as the first ones made it back into camp, then within minutes the whole team had arrived. There was an air of excitement as the word spread that the twelve men had returned and were about to give their report of what they had seen and experienced. A crowd of thousands of men and women and children gathered, their leaders at the forefront. Then they began to share their report and the first impressions were that it was going to be very difficult. The land of Caanan was rich but it was also heavily fortified. Quickly, Caleb, who was one of the twelve who had just returned, moved to the front of the group and quieted the people down. ?We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we shall surely overcome it.? What happened next none expected. The other ten spies began to stir the people with absolutely negative conclusions. They said that they felt tiny like insects in comparison to the size of the giants who lived near Hebron . Feelings went from fear to hopelessness to rage. The whole thing turned into a mob scene in minutes, the people felt they had been betrayed by Moses. They began to shout, 'stone them, stone them.? A number of men moved forward to grab Moses, Joshua and Caleb. At exactly that instant a great brightness was present in the tent of meeting, everyone saw it, this was the glory of the Lord and it stopped the people in their tracks. Before the dawn had come God had pronounced a sentence upon the nation, for every day the spies had been in Caanan the people would spend a year in the desert, 40 days became 40 years. The entire population of adult men over 20 would never enter Caanan, instead their children would experience the profession of being shepherds and from this place they would eventually . . .

?We?ll see,? I said, and heard my daughter sigh. She knew what that meant, just as I knew when my mother said it to me when I was her age. It meant the answer was probably ?no.? It meant my mother didn't want to come right out and say that word, but was leaning strongly in that direction. It meant she had some serious doubts about letting me do whatever it was I had requested. It meant she'd talk it over with my dad and then have the added weight and authority of his ?no? to back her up. When my mother said, ?We?ll see,? it meant we wouldn't.

Sometimes it feels like God is doing that. He won't give a direct answer, but we can tell we are not going to like it when He does. Sometimes, as we wait for the answer, we have little hope that things will turn out the way we would like them to. We are reluctant to believe that God wants to say, ?yes.? We see him as a parent whose lips are permanently shaped in the form of the ?n? word.

But God's letter to us, the letter that was written down thousands of years ago, tells us differently. The Scriptures tell us that God sings over us and delights in us. He longs to give us good things. He tried to convince His disciples of this when he walked and talked with them while he was on earth. Jesus said ? ?Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are . . .

A stalactite grows downwards from the roof of a cave, and a stalagmite grows upwards from the floor. They are formed slowly, drip by drip, as dissolved calcite is brought down by water. When the water is exposed to air, carbon dioxide in the water is lost, which means the water cannot carry as much calcite, and a few grains are left behind as a deposit. Gradually, grain by grain, the calcite forms a solid column, curtain, terrace or straw-shape.
When the drop falls it leaves a little more calcite behind and this begins to form the columns, pans, saucers and other shapes which grow upwards.

The standard text book will tell you that most of the really large formations are many thousands or even millions of years old. This dating is based on two things: the speed at which the columns are growing today, and the assumption that the columns are very old. There are two problems with these points of view. Firstly, present rates of column growth are not proof that speeds were the same in the past, and secondly, it is not scientific to give dates based on assumptions. Good science works on measurable things, observed things, not assumptions.

It is interesting that stalactites and stalagmites usually form in or under deposits of limestone. What is limestone? The encyclopedia says, "Sedimentary rock composed chiefly of calcium carbonate, derived from the shells of marine organisms." Also note that marble is limestone that has been . . .