And There Was Light
By: Jack Wyman
We always enjoy visiting our daughters. Family is precious.
When we visit Suzanne, our oldest, we borrow the bedroom of our grandsons. Nimble of foot and quick of reflex, these boys know their way around. They know where they are.
Their grandparents are not so fortunate.
It was nice of them to let us occupy their bedroom for a couple of nights, but on this occasion, we had not planned as carefully as we should have. In the middle of the night, I awoke with that urge not unfamiliar to many people our age. I looked around, not sure where I was. There was total darkness.
Not wanting to awaken Beth, sleeping in a separate bed, and knowing I could not wait much longer, I got up and began groping the wall, seeking the door. It was to no avail.
Beth woke up and turned on her cell phone light. She discovered me with my hands on the far wall. “What are you doing?” she asked. A fair question. “I’m looking for the door,” I replied. She laughed, shined her light, and said, “It’s over there, on the other wall.” I was soon relieved, in all ways, and thankful for the guidance.
What a difference light makes. Even a little.
The first words we read in the Bible are about darkness. It “was upon the face of the deep.” (Genesis 1:2) Before there was light, there was darkness. The earth was “without form and void.”
The first recorded words God spoke were a command: “Let there be light.” And there was light. God separated the light from the darkness when he made night and day. From the moment of man’s first sin in Eden, spiritual darkness and light have been at cosmic war with each other. The struggle has been unrelenting, fierce, and irreconcilable. It has been manifest at a million different points of conflict throughout human history.
Good and evil cannot make peace. The ground between them has never been common ground; it has always been battle-ground. Satan, having deceived our first parents, has led a dauntless rebellion against all that is good and just on earth.
His campaign to kill, steal, and destroy has been a blood-soaked, hate-filled, and heart-breaking onslaught against God himself. The history of man’s travails has been a record of evil’s power and determination. It has been the tragic confirmation of the fallenness of this world.
Christmas is the irrefutable and glorious proclamation of God’s triumph over darkness; over evil, sin, and despair. Christmas is God’s clarion message of joy, hope, and love. And the greatest symbol and evidence of their final victory over our last enemy. How does the prophet Isaiah describe it?
“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness, a light has dawned.” (Isaiah 9:2) It was Isaiah who had compared sinful man to those groping along the wall, “feeling their way like people without eyes.” (Isaiah 59:10) Seeking light but steeped in blindness.
The light had now come. A Savior would be born. Satan’s efforts to crush him while still a child would be foiled. Jesus Christ—“veiled in flesh the Godhead see; hail the incarnate Deity!”—declared himself the Light of the world.
“For unto us a child is born. Unto us a Son is given.”
Messiah has now appeared. “A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices; for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.” “Now this is the message we have heard from him,” wrote John in his first letter, “that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.” (I John 5:5)
The mind of fallen man—his conscience, his motives, his schemes—may be darkened by sin, as Paul told the Christians living in pagan Rome, but light and life have come through Jesus Christ, who has conquered sin, death, and the devil.
It is this victory we stop to recognize and unite to celebrate at Christmas. “He rules the world,” exclaims Isaac Watts, “with truth and grace. . . No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground. He comes to make His blessings flow, far as the curse is found.”
Evil cannot win. For Satan has already been defeated. This is the triumphant Truth of Christmas. This is the glory and the joy of our eternal hope. This is why you and I make merry at this most wonderful time of the year—and why we must live with hope and confidence all year long. The star that guided the wise men to Jesus is the same light that guides our steps every day along the paths of goodness and peace.
John writes in the majestic prologue of his gospel that in Jesus is 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) The darkness of this world can neither comprehend—it cannot understand nor grasp—nor overpower the Light of Christ. Never! The doom of darkness is sealed. The Light is eternal.
You and I have been chosen; called out of darkness by God into his wonderful light. (I Peter 2:9) No matter how dark things may sometimes seem in our lives or in this world, Christmas reminds us that “the path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.” (Proverbs 4:18)
So let us sing with joy in our hearts:
“Light and life to all He brings, Risen with healing in His wings.”
Let there be light. And there was light.
To order Jack Wyman’s book, “Everything Else: Stories of Life, Faith and Our World”, go to amazon.com, Christian Book Distributors or barnesandnoble.com. It is also available on Kindle and eBooks.
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