Light

Imagine the experience of no light. Darkness everywhere? In the beginning, there was total darkness. No light. I once toured a cave with an organized group led by an official guide. The guide prepared us (sort of) for the lights to be turned off. Then—it was dark. I mean, DARK! At the beginning of Time, when God saw the darkness, he said, “Let there be light!” And, as the Scriptures tell us, And so light appeared. ⁴ God saw how good the light was. God separated the light from the darkness. ⁵ God named the light Day and the darkness Night.

Light offers multitudes of possibilities; not the least of which is Hope. The Israelites stumbled in the wilderness —a kind of darkness— even though God provided leadership—and light at night. At the risk of too much ad lib, I posit that the celebration of Advent points to that Hope; it celebrates with God’s gift of light. Our church lights candles on an Advent Wreath each Sunday; Hanukkah is known also as the Festival of Lights. The religious/secular celebration of the season involves a superabundance of colorful lights—as the song goes, “….even stop lights blink bright red and green!”

I love Christmas lights; tree lights, lawn lights, street decoration lights, Parks, attractions, and business lighted decorations. Heck! I even like the little home-styled lawn recreations of Christmas, and Nativity tableaus. Paige and I once drove away back into the inweaves of McIntosh County on a two-lane state road to see a countryside lighted up; Lights, scenes, animations, all created by that tiny rural neighborhood. Sure it was not Callaway Gardens, but it was a statement of joy, hope, and inspiration. Again this year I look forward to seeing massive assortments of Christmas lights.

There is a telling statement in the Gospel of John; The light shines in the darkness,
    and the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light. Light is visible from untold distances. A survivor of the WWII London Bomb Blitz said, During the Blitz we hovered in the darkness near our radio to keep track of the war. An official stormed into our house and shouted for us to turn off the radio—the red “on” light could be seen by the airplane pilots! —putting us all in danger.

I offer an excerpt from my pastor’s message this week, appropriately concluding today’s Blog: Advent is a lot of things. In the secular world, it is shopping season. In the church, it is a season of getting ready. But in my heart, in this season, it is a season of trying to see the church and the world as God gives us a vision of what it COULD be. Because God saw the world in a great darkness, but always held the creative love up to it, and knew what the world COULD be. And so God sent his son to bring us a great light so that we could see it too. (Emphasis added).