“The people walking in the darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.” Isaiah 9:2
We all love Christmas lights. In Taylor Swift's hit song Lover, she suggests "We could leave the Christmas lights up 'til January" She's in no rush to see the lights go, and neither are we.
Lights are an important marker of the Christmas season, so much so we put them everywhere. Our town squares are decorated and adorned with lights. We decorate our homes and Christmas trees. I’ve even seen a truck driving around Cornelia covered with Christmas lights. For some, the lights are just decorative, but at their core, they are symbolic of light entering our world at a time of darkness. In the northern hemisphere, summer moves to fall, which takes us into the darkness of winter. As the seasonal change occurs, our days' light becomes shorter and shorter. The winter solstice marks the day of the year with the least amount of sunlight and the longest amount of darkness. This year the winter solstice will occur on December 21st. All of this holds the key to why Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ when we do and why lights are more than decorative. The reason Christians have chosen to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ on December 25th is to remind all of us that the darkness does not truly win. The darkest days are over, and new light is entering our world.
Without lights to guide and inform us of our surroundings, we can hardly do anything. Have you ever stumbled around a dark room looking for a light switch? I’ve had the misfortune of hiking up Blood Mountain at sunset only to dangerously stumble my way back to my car in the dark. The message of Christmas is that things are not how they should be, we are all stumbling around in the dark, and we cannot fix it ourselves, but there's hope. A light is entering the world that upends lostness, ignorance, and evil. The light of Christ enters our world to show how things truly are and guide us how to move and be. To us a child is born that will heal our blindness and disperse all evil. Christians believe Jesus walks with us, even into the valleys of the shadow of death. The Gospel of John says it this way, “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.” Christ is a light that not only informs our being but also goes where no other light has been, and He will not fail us.
At Christmas we celebrate the gift of Jesus Christ to our world through songs, presents, and beautiful lights in the dark. And Jesus brings something to each of us. John 1:9 states “The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.” Christians believe that in a dark world we find our way by making Jesus our light, such that we are taken out of all types of darkness. With Jesus as our light, the abstract and mysterious nature of the Divine is made known to us. We can look at Jesus and understand love, grace, forgiveness, and justice. Jesus not only teaches us how to pray, what is to come, but also how to be. It’s as if someone turned on a light switch. They may just be Christmas lights to some, but to others the light has a theological importance and a resounding hope. As the world is getting darker earlier, Christmas lights all over our world speak to the coming of Jesus Christ, our Light.