Good morning. In our back yard we have three spruce trees. The largest has grown to be about a dozen feet tall, which seems to Pam and me to be the perfect height to display Christmas lights. So, soon after Thanksgiving I was out there in the backyard stringing three strands of Christmas lights, all powered by small solar cells that flash and twinkle in various colors.
Monday, we decided to bring the Christmas tree up from storage in the basement, so now we have beautiful Christmas lights inside and out. I know, compared to some, it is a small effort.
There is a guy in the twin cities that uses a bank of computers to control the flashing, pulsating lights that he has on display. The news piece said that he employs over 300,000 lights. Wow. Those down under can view the nearly 1.2 million LED lights, on 75 miles of cable, which are on display in Petrie Plaza mall in Canberra, Australia. If that seems a bit far away for a quick visit, there is the Bentleyville Tour of Lights in Duluth that boasts about using over 5 million lights!
It is Christmas, and we love our pretty lights!
But let us not forget the truth of Christmas light.
We read in John 1:1-13 of the Light who comes into the world: 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 were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
When the time was absolutely right, not by the calendars of men but by the reckoning of the All Mighty, God sent His light into the world. It was a place of darkness. It was a place where the blackness of sin had encroached upon the power of the light until people began to think that living in perpetual darkness was “normal.”
We have been reading Isaiah 8:20-22 as a part of our current preaching series. These verses proclaim the truth of darkness, that people had rebelled against God and surrounded themselves in utter darkness. It ends by saying that in this darkness the people could not expect a new “dawn.” Nothing people could do could bring back the light.
But God tells us in Isaiah 9:2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of shadow and death, on them a light shined. God continues in this passage to tell us this light is the Son who is given to mankind. The Messiah of God is the light that has come into the world. He is the light that conquers darkness. He is the light who conquered sin, and death, and drove away every shadow. He is Jesus, the Light of the world.
Enjoy the light displays this Christmas season. They are indeed spectacular, beautiful, and often amazing. Or they might be the quiet lights of a family Christmas tree, softly glowing in peaceful beauty. Or the lights enjoyed this Christmas may be the candles lit at the end of our Christmas Eve worship, combining to share a message of unity and hope.
Enjoy the lights of this Christmas season, but always remember why we light them and why we enjoy them: Jesus is the light of God who has come into the world.
Vern