I don’t like dark mornings and evenings. Especially as the winter gets going with frost and damp it seems all the more challenging to have long winter evenings….
Yet, at this time of year our culture is accustomed to putting up lights and baubles and stars to celebrate Christmas. As with so many things, people who wouldn’t claim to be Christians find themselves ‘speaking’ better than they know!
Last Sunday morning as we started our ‘preparations for Christmas’ we read these amazing words from John ch 1:
“4In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 “The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.” (John Ch 1 vs 4 & 5)
From whichever direction you approach the account of the Lord Jesus’ birth that first Christmas, He illuminated a world that was very dark with hope and life forever.
The effect that He has should not surprise us: it was He, as the one ‘through whom all things were made’ (see vs3) that God made light in the first place right back at the beginning.
Moreover, Jesus who could say:
“12I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)
Notice the link in each case between ‘light’ and ‘life’: As we celebrate His coming to be born as a baby at Bethlehem, we need to remember that He is the one in whom is real life in the first place. Every person is dependent on Him and recognising who He is and what He has done and is doing illuminates our experience and provides us with real life to live by.
Let’s enjoy the lights as they remind us of Him!
Spencer Shaw