Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat. Personally I prefer turkey, and ham is even better, but the reality is that Christmas Day is fast approaching!
While Luke details Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem and Matthew tells us about the Wise Men, John’s nativity story is much different. Instead of starting at the beginning of Jesus’ life, or even the beginning of the Hebrew nation, John starts at the very beginning. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”
In the following verses, John describes how Jesus was present at Creation and eventually how He put on flesh and dwelt among us. He also gives us a powerful image of who Jesus is as He describes Him as the Light of life and the true Light that was coming into the world. John assures us the darkness of sin, evil, Satan, nor any other shady influence can or will overcome this great Light.
Consequently, light has become a very powerful symbol down through the ages helping us to understand who Jesus truly is. Candlelight Christmas Eve services and countless carols celebrate Jesus, The Light.
Sadly, each person chooses to turn toward the Light or away from it. The darkness of night is what happens every day when the earth turns away from the light of the sun. The sun doesn’t move, diminish its brightness, nor lower its heat. It just shines. And the earth turns away causing darkness and coldness.
Similarly, Jesus continues to shine whether we turn toward or away from Him. Whenever we turn away from Jesus, night comes into our lives. Like the earth, we begin to exist in our own shadow without the warmth of His love and the enlightenment of His influence. Unlike the earth, however, turning back toward Him is not automatic. We must choose to do so, or not, thus allowing our lives to be illuminated or to walk in the dark.
Even in the darkness of our physical night, God has left a witness in the form of the moon to reflect the sun’s light as a reminder that it is still shining. So too, even in the darkest times of life, God provides reflections of Jesus in the form of His written word, Christian music, and godly friends. God is determined not to give up on us or to let us dwell in either type of darkness.
Dawn arrives as the earth turns back toward the bright sunshine. A brand spanking new day is ushered in as the rotation of our globe brings us back into the direct rays of our nearest star. Even as I write this column, the light and heat are streaming through the windows illuminating our home and surroundings.
Never is the darkness more intense than when death takes a loved one from us or stares us directly in the face. Thankfully, even death’s darkness could not and has not overcome the light of Jesus.
Eight centuries before He was born in Bethlehem, Isaiah prophesied about Jesus’ arrival that, “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light, on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.” He goes on in that chapter to name Him Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
Did God create light to help us understand Jesus? Or is this an analogy that John and other Biblical writers used to explain Him? Or is the physical reality entwined with a deep spiritual truth?
As we enjoy the Christmas lights and ponder the symbolism and reality that Jesus is the Light, may we create dawn in our own lives by turning from the darkness of our sin toward the perfect Light of Jesus that not only burns them away but enlightens our pathway each day.
Blessings, George