Jesus entered our world under the darkness of night.
Luke Ch 2: 7-8 "And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night"
This season has a way of illuminating dark places we'd rather keep hidden. Maybe it's because we want so much to have the storybook homes, the perfect Advent celebrations, and drama-free, loving families? Maybe the brokenness of our world in contrast to celebrating the holidays seems too ironic for our hearts to handle? In many of us, expectations and ideals don't meet reality for one reason or another and darkness creeps out of its neatly controlled box and rears its ugly head into the forefront of our lives; shame, fear, guilt, condemnation, anxiety, worry, control, depression, anger...name your darkness of choice. Jesus didn't come to our world in the light of a glorious, sun-soaked day. He came in the darkness of night because He is the light. With His first breath on Earth, Immanuel, brought with him the "light of life" and there is no place too dark for His light to reach.
The "light of the world" coming to a sinfully dark world to bring "the light of life".
John 8:12 "Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
1 John 1:5 "This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all."
This pre-Christmas week, let's invite Jesus into our darkest places and trust Him to lovingly shine forth His light. He is the Word that is the "lamp to our feet and light to our path" (Psalm 119:105). He came to life on our earth to bring us life out of darkness and death. Let's celebrate that promise by living out the words of Ephesians 5:8 and "walk as children of light" starting now.
John 1:4 "In him was life, and the life was the light of men."
Jena M.
