The people walking in darkness have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.
— Isaiah 9:2
This prophecy from Isaiah had to seem like a lifeline for Jews living under the darkness of Roman rule. Their situation was untenable. They were powerless in their own land and longed for a Messiah to save them, the dawning of a new day. We empathize with their desperate hope that a light would rise in their dark world.
We also live in shadowy times—right and wrong is blurred, values are muddled, and self is exalted. Shades of gray encroach on truth and its light is dimmed. Like the Jews, we cry out, “How long, Lord?” The difference from our darkness and that of the Jews, is that the Light has come. We see the great Light they longed for… and sought to extinguish. His name is Jesus and His light is in us. We are not delivered from the perils of this world but it lives and pulses in us, shining its hope as we live in this land of deep darkness until the light of His eternal kingdom dawns.
Let every Christmas light—the twinkling white fairy lights, the glowing colored bulbs, the flickering candle flames—remind you a that Light shines in our darkness… and it leads us Home.
BARBARA HIGBY 