Light in Our Darkness
by Linda Rex
I recall one winter when my children and I were playing Monopoly in the living room and the lights went out. Normally I would not have been concerned. We would just get the candles out and keep going. But the weather was frigid and ice was accumulating on the trees and bushes outside. No power meant we would be very cold since we use propane to heat the house and the blower would not be working to force the heat into the rooms.
We did finish our Monopoly game by candlelight, but when bedtime came, there was still no power. The house grew colder. The darkness seemed darker somehow, with the clouds and storm, and no lights on inside or out. Bundled up in blankets and warm clothing, we huddled in our beds for the night.
During those winter months, when the days were growing longer but the gray skies and cold weather lingered, I was reminded of the darkness spoken about in Isaiah. The people of Israel had continued to break God’s heart with their unfaithfulness and disobedience. So he sent them away from their homeland into captivity. For many centuries there was no prophetic word from God. It was a time of deep darkness for the nation of Israel and the other nations Israel had been sent to as God’s representative.
It was in these days of darkness and despair that God entered the world in the person of Jesus Christ. John, in his gospel, speaks of Jesus as being the Light of the world (John 1:4) even though the world did not comprehend who he was and what he was doing here on earth. Throughout his human life, Jesus healed people, cast out evil spirits and fed large numbers of people. He spoke words of truth that challenged accepted world views. He taught his disciples a new way of life, of loving their enemies and doing good to those who persecuted them. The result of Jesus’ good deeds and compassionate love was an untimely, gruesome death on the cross.
But the Light had already begun to shine and the grave could not and would not stop him. Jesus rose from the grave and his resurrection impacted the world in such a way that it has never been the same since. In the centuries that followed as Christianity began to spread throughout the world, Jesus’ followers began to shine light into dark places wherever they went. Where there was despair, suffering, loss and hunger, there came hospitals, orphanages, and schools. Jesus’ followers were human and faulty—they had shortcomings. But the truth is that Jesus’ eternal light entered the world, and from then on the world has never been the same.
Not only does the Light of Jesus bring a new way of living and interacting with other people throughout the world we live in. But when we trust in Jesus, we also have the hope of that Light shining in us and through us for all eternity. We embrace the hope of shining brightly like stars with Christ in glory. Jesus, our Light, and the Light of the world, has come and the world, as with us, will never be the same again.
“Arise, shine; for your light has come, And the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples; but the LORD will rise upon you and His glory will appear upon you.” Isa. 60:1-2
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