Light into Darkness

If you have ever lived in the Pacific Northwest, you know that winter here is a trying time. Dusk starts around 3:45pm and it is full on night by 4:30. And if that wasn't bad enough, the few hours of daylight are heavily shrouded by thick, low sitting clouds so that daytime is dim and gray. It is depressing. I believe "Seasonal Affective Disorder" was a term coined especially for the hordes of tired, depressed people in Western Washington this time of year.

Battling through the weather this year and preparing for Christmas got me thinking. While Jesus was not born on December 25th, and was more likely born in the Springtime, I actually find it symbolically and poetically fitting that during this month - the coldest, darkest month of the year, we celebrate the birth of Christ, the light of Heaven. Because it was into the darkness of humanity, human beings at their most rebellious and estranged from God, that Christ came into the world. The Savior, here to rescue us from sin, death, and darkness.

So this year, instead of bemoaning me and my family's seemingly never-ending cold and flu symptoms, the lack of vitamin D, and the need to have the lights on in the house at one in the afternoon, I want to dwell on the symbolism of how Christ has come to rescue us from our sickness and darkness. On Christmas Day, I want to worship with new found thankfulness, knowing that we are celebrating the turning point in history. The birth of hope, peace, grace and redemption. I want to believe and celebrate that because God was willing to come and dwell with us, we have a future hope of freedom from pain, suffering, and loneliness... and 5 hour long, dim northwestern days.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it...... The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world."
John 1:1-5, 9.

"....to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace."
Luke 1:77-79

Merry Christmas!