Christmas came fast on the heels of Thanksgiving this year, didn’t it? I don’t know about you but at our house, we barely had time to eat up all the leftovers ‘til it was time to turn the calendar page!
I’m not complaining one bit though; I love Christmas!
I love reading Advent devotionals and singing Christmas carols. I love jolly parties and gift exchanges, hot chocolate, and special Christmas cookies in front of a fire (if it’s cold enough for one in Georgia)!
My heart smiles as I listen to the people of the town wishing each other a Merry Christmas.
But the thing I love most of all is the lights! They shine so cheerfully and steadily in the darkness, warming my heart and reminding me of the Jesus I celebrate today.
They also make me think of the night lights of my childhood and how desperately necessary they used to be.
You see, as a child, I was terribly afraid of the dark and I will never, ever forget the night when all the lights went out.
I was five years old and didn’t even know what ‘pitch black’ meant but I was experiencing it for the first time that I could remember.
At home, each night before I hopped into my bed, I checked to make sure my tiny light was shining before Mom flipped the switch on the wall. It kept all sorts of evil imaginations at bay and let me rest in peace.
Now, I lay on my floor bed, trembling from head to toe. The inky darkness was so thick that I couldn’t see Dad or Mom on their beds only a few feet away from mine.
“Turn the light back on! I can’t see!” I cried.
Dad’s voice reached out to me through the darkness.
“We can’t turn the lights on. They shut off the generator until morning. Just shut your eyes and you won’t even know it is dark.”
According to Dad’s friends, a trip into the Canadian bush was crazy.
“What do you think you’re doing, dragging three little children all the way up there this time of year?” they’d demanded.
It was the beginning of winter and Dad had offered to drive his semi and trailer loaded with both supplies and Christmas gifts to a mission in western Ontario. Part of the trip involved taking the big rig back three hundred miles of gravel road up to the farthest mission post. It was desolate territory. If we ran into trouble, there would be no rescue for miles and miles.
But Dad was not dissuaded; he was sure he could make the trip successfully, even with a wife and kids in tow.
Now, here we were, all safe and sound under warm covers.
Only he’d forgotten to prepare me for nighttime without a night light.
No matter how good an earthly father is, he cannot anticipate every problem or fear that his little daughter will have.
But Jesus? He’s thought of everything.
John 1 says that Jesus brought a light into this world that is not of an earthly origin. It is an eternal night light that He places into each person coming into the world.
That light draws us to His light, and whoever follows Him will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
Life embraces light and Jesus offers us both.
No matter how bad life gets or how dark the night is, Jesus’s little light is there, calming fears and quieting the soul.
We need never dread the moment when Heaven’s generator shuts off.
It never will because Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
I’m so glad we can celebrate the light Jesus brought to earth for us that night so long ago.
May you rest in His light this Christmas season!
“The light shines in the darkness and the darkness can never extinguish it.” John 1:5