The true light
by Marlene Cooper
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‘The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world’ (John 1:9).
Lights on the Christmas tree, festooned over trees, across gardens, along the eaves and window frames of houses, candles on the Christmas table and more in churches: lights and Christmas just go together. How disappointed many people were this year to hear that popular light shows would be cancelled because of the pandemic.
Ages ago the prophet Isaiah spoke these words: ‘The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned’ (Isaiah 9:2). People longing for light, overshadowed by the threat of a powerful adversary and the collapse of their nation, must have heard those words with longing, hardly daring to hope or believe they could be meant for them.
Today, wonder of wonders, we are privileged to see that great light dawning and shining among us, that ‘true light that gives light to everyone … coming into the world’. As we contemplate and worship the Christmas child and see him as a newborn in a lowly stable, perhaps we may be asking, can it be that he is the light longed for down the ages? Can he be the ‘great light’ of whom Isaiah spoke? The gospel assures us, ‘In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it’ (John 1:4,5).
As Christmas lights gleam from trees, windows, housetops, and churches, we are reminded that the Word who became flesh and made his dwelling with us, the one and only Son who came from the Father, is here. He triumphed over all the darkness of sin and death so that through him all should believe and receive the right to become children of God. Today we thank and praise God for Jesus our Saviour, Light of the World, full of grace and truth.
Light of the World, Lord Jesus, on this holy day, dispel the world’s darkness and fill our hearts with your true light that cannot be overcome. May we share that light with others again this Christmas as we welcome your coming to live among us. Amen.
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