Light in the Darkness

By
 “Arise! Shine! Your light has come; the Lord’s glory has shone upon you. Though darkness covers the earth and gloom the nations, the Lord will shine upon you; God’s glory will appear over you.”

- Isaiah 60:1-2 CEB -


Darkness is a real thing. Not only as we get to the winter months where it might be dark before you get home from your afternoon or evening activities, but we know darkness on a personal level sometimes.  Darkness is that voice in us that makes us doubt ourselves. Darkness is that feeling that no one else knows what you’re going through. Darkness is cold isolation and separation.  Yet we know through the birth of Christ that God’s light breaks in upon us. The love of God that comes in Jesus finds us just as we are, just where we are. God’s love warms up the coldest isolation and lets us see ourselves for the beautiful creation God made us to be.

One of my favorite images is the sharing of the Christ candle we do at our Christmas Eve services.  Something about how it starts as one small light and then echoes to be a beautiful room filled with a loving glow just feels great.  Christ comes as this little infant in the darkest part of the year to remind us that darkness will never have the last word. God’s love and light will always be there ready to ignite in us and fill our lives. Let God’s light do the same in us and everyone we meet this new year! 

To Read More: John 1:1-14

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Light as a Feather

By
Image
 " And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them,  “If anyone would come after me, let him  deny himself and  take up his cross and follow me.  For  whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake  and the gospel's will save it.     For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?     For  what can a man give in return for his soul? " Mark 8:34-37   (ESV) There is a lot packed in these four verses from Mark. What stands out to me most through all this talk about losing or gaining our lives and our souls, is in verse 34 where we are told to “take up your cross”. This is an instruction I have heard many times through the church, but what does it mean to take up your cross? To me, taking up our cross is choosing to be a Christian everyday. The conscious effort to treat people a certain way, to rely on God, and to think about ...
Read more

When We Can’t Say Nothing at All

By
Image
  “ I said, ‘Mourn for me; I’m ruined! I’m a man with unclean lips, and I live among a people with unclean lips. Yet I’ve seen the king, the Lord of heavenly forces!’”  “Then I heard the Lord’s voice saying, ‘Whom should I send, and who will go for us?’ I said, ‘I’m here; send me.’” - Isaiah 6:5 & 8 CEB - We don’t often use the phrase ‘unclean lips,’ but it doesn’t take much to think about what it could mean. In our society, we classify certain things as ‘dirty words’ or ‘dirty language.’ But I do not think cussing or talking about lewd subjects is the only ways our lips can be unclean. How often do we think about the implications of what we say? Sure we realize that we might not always say the best things. Instead of saying a loving or kind word we simple just say something OK. Sometimes we do not say anything at all and hope that is better than what we wanted to say. After all, there is the motherly proverb of “if you can’t say something nice, don...
Read more

Strength in Weakness

By Anonymous
Image
He said to me, "My grace is enough for you, because power is made perfect in weakness." So I'll gladly spend my time bragging about my weaknesses so that Christ's power can rest on me. Therefore, I'm all right with weaknesses, insults, disasters, harassments, and stressful situations for the sake of Christ, because when I'm weak, then I'm strong. - 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 NRSV - In high school my youth pastor used the image of a clay jar with a candle inside to explain how we can find strength in weakness. If a clay jar is perfectly intact and closed with a lid, the light of the candle inside is hidden. From the outside no one is able to tell that the candle exists. However, when the clay jar is cracked and broken, the light of the candle shines through, revealing its existence. This is how we can find strength in weakness, thereby glorifying God. If humans were perfect, there would be no need to point to a savior. From the outside no one w...
Read more