Let there be light

 I love the Christmas season. After all, I’m an ambassador for what it stands for. The message of Christ and his life, sacrifice, death, and resurrection could not have been possible had it not been for his birth. The miracles he performed as the son of man had to be preceded by the miracle of conception. In short, Christmas is what makes Easter possible. I’m not penning this article to try to re-tell the same annual Christmas story, I write today to point to the light.

I have this thought and voice it to those around me twice each year. I mention it in the spring and the fall religiously, we have a chuckle and move on and that is my Christmas doesn’t happen on Dec. 25th. Christmas, for me, is in March when the time springs forward. The day of dread for me is in November when it falls back. I guess what excites me is that there is more light when the time changes in the spring. Our days and nights take equal billing at the spring and fall equinox. Our days are their longest during the summer solstice, and, did it ever occur to any of us, that Christmas just happens to fall at a time of the year when the earth is at its darkest? The darkest day of the year is only four days before Christmas. Once we arrive at this date each year, the world is hungering for light, and that has never been more true than it is this year. With every battle, we’re always searching for the light at the end of the tunnel. People are sick this year with COVID, we have lost friends and family members and we are simply wanting a little light.

Six thousand years ago, God said let there be light, and the earth became illuminated. Four thousand years ago, the earth was covered in darkness by clouds and flood waters. Noah sent out a dove that returned with a ray of hope in the form of an olive leaf. Two thousand years ago, God didn’t speak light or send a bird, he came himself and illuminated the darkness. Christmas is celebrated the same time each year, and that is during the darkest days on earth, a light in the darkness. Jesus called himself the light of the world in John chapter 8. He said for us to follow him, and, in doing so, we would not stumble in the darkness and that our very lives would become illuminated. Paul mentions the light in the book of Romans chapter 13 when he says in verse 12 that the night is far gone or in other words morning is coming. He says the day is at hand and that now is the time to put on the armor of light. Paul makes clear mention that we don’t dress for the night like we do for the day. We don’t go to work in our sleep clothes, and we prepare ourselves in the morning for the day ahead. Likewise, we should not think like the darkness, and the only thing that conquers the darkness is light.

Light is synonymous with understanding. Those “ah-ha” moments of revelation are when the light came on in our minds and thus we understood. Today is the winter solstice, the darkest day of the year. Now is the time to start seeing the light, start focusing on the birth of Christ and covering our thoughts with the light of the world. The days only get longer from here. Please be encouraged as you read. This darkness is beginning to subside. Lazarus was pronounced dead, wrapped in grave clothes, and locked in a tomb for four days when the one who called himself the light of the world walked onto the scene. He spoke life into Lazarus, illuminated the darkness and then instructed them to get those grave clothes off his friend. What we wear in the darkness will never be appropriate for the day and our thoughts are the same. Jesus didn’t bust the darkness wide open so we could remain under the heaviness of darkness. He wasn’t born so a few select people could follow him. He came to illuminate everything and everyone that will allow him in.

The only one who can keep your world in darkness is you, and the only one that has the power to invite the light inside is also you. Let there be light during this Christmas season. Thank you for always being faithful to read and go on these journeys with me. Thank you for bringing a little light to my world each week, and, remember, we’re always on the square in Sparta. We are Christpoint Church, and you can find us open at 9 a.m. and 11 am on Sunday mornings. We’re real people, living real lives, serving a real God. Welcome home.