Christmas Musing #3 A Great Light

2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. Isaiah 9:2

We are creatures that long to dwell in light. Aside from a few “night-owls,” we prefer daylight. It is easier to move about without problems, being able to see the pitfalls in front of us. For a while I served as a battalion S-4, or logistics officer. While out in the field, I was responsible for placing, manning, and operating the battalion logistics center, or ALOC. During one exercise, I placed the ALOC behind an old anti-tank ditch in order to help with defense. It seemed like a good idea to me. Late one night, the battalion commander dropped by for a visit. When he left, I offered him a ground-guide to get him out of the ALOC and onto the road. He refused the aid, not wanting to bother a soldier. A short time later, rather shaken, he returned to the ALOC with his driver. He’d become lost in the dark and stumbled into the anti-tank ditch in the dark moonless night. Knowing his driver would continue moving forward, he desperately crawled down the ditch narrowly avoiding getting crushed by his HMMWV when it pitched into the ditch. Lost in the dark, he stumbled into a very perilous situation. It took us the rest of the night to get his HMMWV out of the ditch and him back onto the road. 

Like my battalion commander, 0ur world stumbles along in the dark not knowing the impending danger bearing down on us. Each Christmas, I’m reminded of how failed our world is. Despite progress on various fronts, darkness still blights the landscape. People starve, children die in needless wars, and criminals lurk in the dark. All these things, and many more, still take place. But sadly, the greatest darkness exists inside our hearts. 

This interior darkness blinds us, making good decisions near impossible. Jesus came to shine His light into our darkness. The babe in Bethlehem brings His light into the world, helping us to see our hearts clearly. His light illuminates the brokenness of our hearts and the self-centered faulty decision making which plagues us all. He came to bring His light into a sad and broken world. His light informs our Christmas celebration. We festoon our houses, trees, and living rooms with lights. We refer to Christmas as the season of light. Intuitively we know that we exist in a world of darkness and that we need light. We find ourselves crawling down a ditch, desperately hoping to avoid being crushed by our own decisions. But we have hope. Jesus came to shine light into the darkness. He became man, was born in Bethlehem, and lived among men so that we might have hope of not spending our lives stumbling about, trapped in gloomy darkness.