"The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine." Isaiah 9:2
"The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can NEVER extinguish it." John 1:5
That we live in dark times is not lost on anyone. We feel it all around us. The headlines shout it. Entertainment glorifies it. Politics flame it. We cannot escape it and it seems like it is encroaching closer and closer on us all. What isn’t so clear to most of the world — what isn’t so understood and acceptable — is that WE are the source of all the darkness. The darkness in the world is the result of the darkness in our hearts.
That might seem to make our situation hopeless, and it would be without — CHRISTMAS.
Let the Stable Still Astonish:
Straw-dirt floor, dull eyes,
Dusty flanks of donkeys, oxen;
Crumbling, crooked walls;
No bed to carry that pain,
And the child, rag-wrapped,
Laid to cry in a trough.
Who would have chosen this?
Who would have said:
“Yes, Let the God of all the heavens and earth
be born here, in this place.”?
Who but the same God
Who stands in the darker, fouler rooms of our hearts
and says, “Yes, let the God of Heaven and Earth
be born here — In this place.” (By Leslie Leyland Fields)
At Christmas, God entered our world to make a way for His love to enter our hearts. From start to finish, it wouldn’t be easy. Jesus arrived covered in blood and crying as his infant lungs took their first breath. He would leave the earth fighting for his last breath while nailed to a cross and crying out, “Father, Father, why have you forsaken me?” From first breath to last, He would embrace our weaknesses, our pain, our sorrows, our darkness — and he would take hold of it all, wrestle it all down into the grave, and then bury it dead forever.
Christmas is the beginning of our rescue from the darkness within:
Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12
And one glorious day, from all of the darkness in all of creation:
“No longer will you need the sun to shine by day, nor the moon to give its light by night, for the LORD your God will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.” Isaiah 60:19
“They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign forever and ever.” Revelation 22:5
This Christmas let us show the world that God is still with us by going into the darkness and leading others to the Light!