I got to share the devotional this morning at our church's women's ministry Christmas party. It was a sweet time with my sisters from my church family. I thought I'd share the thoughts here on my blog as well:
One of my
very favorite things about the Christmas season are the decorations. Not so much the cutesy, schmaltzy, cluttery
ones, but the beautiful, shimmering, glittering, brilliant lights as they glint
and shimmer in the all the gold and silver and glass. We all have our
preferences for what makes for beautiful decorations, but for me, I’m partial
to white lights and candles and the gentle twinkle as those lights shine on the
tree, reminding us of the starry night sky. Lights play a big part in our
Christmas decorating. For us in the northern hemisphere, Christmas takes place
in the winter with its long, dark nights, and we light up our homes with
shimmer, lights, and shine as we try to push back the darkness with wonder and
beauty as we await all the things that make Christmas wonderful for us.
What I like
to ponder while I sit in the quiet of my living room on early December mornings
and watch the beautiful twinkle of lights on the glitter and glass on the tree
is how that beauty points to an even greater, more immense, more significant,
brilliant, and glorious beauty – Jesus, who is the light of the world.
The motif of
light is quite prominent in the arc of the scripture. When God creates the
heavens and the earth, what is the very next thing He creates? LIGHT! “Then
God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. God saw that the light was
good; and God separated the light from the darkness.”
In this
first opening chapter of Genesis, we get a picture of what God will do
spiritually for the rest of the ages – after mankind falls into darkness, when
we disobey and reject God and become marred by sin and plunged into spiritual
darkness – God, in His grace and mercy, sets into motion the rescue of His
people from the darkness of sin and rebellion to bring them back to His light.
The history
of mankind is rife with evidence of the darkness our sin causes in this world. Every
one of us has sinned and rebelled against our Creator and felt sin’s devastating
effects in our world and our lives. And yet, God gives us the light of His Word
so that we may know Him, so that those who walk with God can walk in light. In
Isaiah 9:2, the prophet gave hope to God’s people, Israel: “The people who
walk in darkness will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, the
light will shine on them.”
Many years
later, in Luke 1:78-79, John the Baptist’s father speaks a beautiful word of
prophecy reflecting that Isaiah 9 prophecy, about the Messiah who was soon to
come, the One for whom John would be the forerunner and prepare the way, “Because
of the tender mercy of our God, with which the Sunrise from on high will visit
us, To shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide
our feet into the way of peace.”
Fast forward to Luke 2 when the brightness of
the glory of the Lord shines into the darkness of the night and startles a
group of shepherds outside Bethlehem with the good news of great joy that a
Savior has been born, and the heavenly host sings, “Glory to God in the
highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” And in
Matthew 4:16-17, we see the prophecy from Isaiah fulfilled in Jesus. Matthew
quotes that Isaiah 9 prophecy and then says, “From that time Jesus began to
preach and say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” Truly, could it be any clearer that it is through
Jesus that God’s light shines on those of us who have been in darkness?
And then we
have John 1:1-14. This is one of my favorite passages in the Bible! “In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was
in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart
from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and
the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the
darkness did not comprehend it. There came a man sent from God, whose name was
John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might
believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the
Light. There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every
man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did
not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive
Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children
of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor
of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word
became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only
begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
In John
8:12, Jesus says, “I am the Light of the World; he who follows Me will not
walk in darkness, but will have the Light of life.”
In John 10,
Jesus is in Jerusalem for the Feast of Dedication – this is what we know today
as the Festival of Lights, or Hannukah – and at a festival of lights, Jesus so
clearly identifies Himself as the Messiah that the religious leaders understood
He was claiming to be the Son of God and in their unbelief they took up stones
to stone Him. He clearly is claiming to be the One prophesied to bring the
Light.
In
Revelation 21:22-24, the New Creation is being symbolically described, “I
saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the
glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.” Hallelujah – here
we find the fulfillment of what I said at the beginning that God rescues His
people from the spiritual darkness our sin plunged us into and brings us to His
light – He brings us to Himself.
We only have
time for a brief look at light in the Bible this morning, but if you want to
dig a little more you could probably do an interesting word study on light that
I imagine would be very encouraging. There is one more passage I want to share
before I share some practical application and close. For the past, I’m not sure
how long, I have been sporadically, far too slowly, trying to memorize the book
of Colossians. These verses in Colossians 1:9-14 have become precious to me:
“For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray
for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all
spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of
the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and
increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to
His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience;
joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the
inheritance of the saints in Light. For He rescued us from the domain of
darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have
redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
I know that
the holidays, and especially Christmas, can be a difficult time for many. When
so many voices and movies and TV shows and music all around us are so loud
about the so-called perfect Christmas, the pressure to have the perfect holiday
can feel dark and overwhelming if your reality is vastly different from the
worldly expectations or when you do not have what you wish you could have to
make this Christmas perfect. Holidays can be very lonely when life's events make
us weep.
My friends,
my encouragement for you this Christmas – whether you will have a houseful and
all the holiday cheer your heart desires and all your expectations are joyful,
or on the other hand, perhaps you may be feeling lonely, disappointed or bitter
with the weight of the difficulties of life in this fallen world, or maybe
you’re feeling burdened and overwhelmed with some sin that has robbed your joy,
or perhaps maybe you don’t even understand what I’m talking about today if you
haven’t yet met this Jesus and come to find the peace that passes all
understanding when you come to trust Him as your Lord and Savior – wherever
this Christmas season finds you, may I encourage you to take time to look away
from the world’s empty promises of what the perfect holiday, the empty promises
of what the perfect life looks like, and let the lights and all that comes with
them in this season point you to the true Light. Jesus has come! And He has
come to redeem you from your darkness. Most importantly, because Jesus perfectly
obeyed God’s Law, when we could not, because Jesus died as our substitute to
pay the debt our sin deserves, because Jesus rose again and is ever interceding
for His people, because of this, in Jesus we can be reconciled, brought into
right relationship, to God. When we come to Him, confess our sins and repent
and trust in Jesus alone for our salvation, we can be made right with God and
walk in His light. In Jesus, broken expectations, disappointments, and even
grief, can be put into proper perspective. Let the forgiveness, peace, and love
Jesus brings draw you near to God and into His light. Let your focus this
Christmas be so much less on what the world would promise Christmas is and so
much more on Jesus, whose promises never fail and who is the true Light of the
World.
