10/02/2023
ENLIGHTENED
I love everything about Christmas, but my absolute favorite memories are the beautiful candlelight services we always had on Christmas Eve. We stopped the crazy pace of Christmas plans and “responsibilities”, wrapping presents, family gatherings and preparing Christmas dinner and focused. Really focused on “the reason for the season.”
The prophet Isaiah described the arrival of the Son of God into the world this way.
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
In the Bible, the story of the life of Jesus is recorded four times by four men. My favorite is written by John, the “self proclaimed” apostle whom Jesus loved. Rather than starting with the angels who foretold His birth or the ancestral genealogy of Jesus, John starts the account of Jesus before the creation of the world.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. Just as Isaiah prophesied, the light of the world had come to dispel the deep darkness.
The sweet candlelight services were such a beautiful reminder of this amazing reality. God came down to a world in deep darkness, the supernatural presence of God wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. But there was another truth illustrated in those beautiful, solemn moments. As each person’s candle was lit, the room filled with beautiful flickering candle light representing God’s amazing plan to fill his followers with that supernatural light that dispels the darkness. And then to remind us how important we were in the plans of God, our pastor and my husband told us to blow out our candles and the room became dark again.
Remember how John described the coming of Jesus to the world. The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world. The candlelight service reminded us that Jesus didn’t just come to be the light of the world. He came to place the supernatural light in the hearts of His followers. In what has come to be called the sermon on the mount, Jesus begins to unfold the plan for which he has come. As he stood on that mountain with thousands listening, explaining who He was and what he had come to accomplish, he commissioned his followers in this way,
You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:14-16
Among the many amazing supernatural “powers” the believer has been given is the power to dispel the darkness by being the light of the world. In Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth, he writes
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.
And to the church at Ephesus he writes,
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth).
Jesus may have come to a world in deep darkness, as Isaiah prophesied, but when he returned to heaven, He had left the lights on so that anyone who chooses to believe in Him would never walk in darkness again. And we have this treasure in our jar of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us.
