Advent Day 18: The Light of Christmas

“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.”  John 1:9-12

I love Christmas lights. It amazes me to ride around and see the houses that decorated from the roof to the yard with enough lights to make my eyes hurt. On the one hand, I find it an incredibly silly tradition that we have of filling our yards with lights, but on the other hand, I find that Christmas lights shining in the darkness of the night remind me of Christ—the true light who came into the darkness of the world.

John makes this great analogy as he opens his gospel; Jesus Christ came to earth as “the light of  the world” (John 8:12). This world of sin and brokenness he compares with darkness. Jesus came at Christmas as the light, but the darkness does not like to have its brokenness and sin revealed, and so the darkness rejected the light. But those within the darkness who see the light of Jesus and receive him by believing in his name, we are told that we are given the right to become children of God. The Jesus reveals the darkness of sin, but he came into the darkness to take its sin upon himself at the cross. The cross is the moment when the light and darkness collide. The resurrection is the moment when the light of Jesus shines in victory over the darkness. 

This Christmas, we still live in a world full of darkness, but we celebrate that the light has come. We celebrate the reason he came—to free us from the darkness. Jesus’ coming at Christmas is the reality that we are no longer children of darkness but children of the light. So as you see the Christmas light shining in the darkness, I pray that you will be reminded that the Light has come into the world.

Jesus is the light of the world.

And that’s a reason to celebrate.