The Light Of The World
One of my favorite parts of Christmas has always been the lights. I love driving through neighborhoods all sparkly and bright in the midst of the winter darkness.
2017 has been a year that I’ve been aware of the darkness more than ever. News reports. Death. Disease. The frailty of man. The reality of a world full of sin.
I think it has much to do with the little life (Zoey Jane) that was entrusted to me and Ezra on June 8th at 2:33 in the morning. Darkness, sin, and evil had never felt so real as when I held that little soul in my arms for the first time. The importance of salvation and eternity had never felt so pressing to me. Evil took on a new meaning to me as I thought of someone harming my little girl. Zoey. Life. A name used by the early church to remind believers of the hope of eternity in the darkness of persecution.
Those first few weeks I heard those words reverberating through our home. So many times they came out of my mouth as I was holding, rocking, and changing the diapers of our little Life: “The best thing in life is to serve Jesus and to spend eternity with Him.” I said it, and I heard her Daddy repeating it over and over. The need for our little Life – our Zoey – to know the author of her life in the midst of sin and darkness.
As the days of 2017 have grown darker and the headlines have raged with the evil of man, my gaze has been drawn to the twinkles of light wrapped around houses, trees, and doorframes. Those early still-night mornings holding my little Life I’ve looked at the tree and thought of the hope. The Light of the world. The Light for every small, tiny little life in the darkness.
Ann Voskamp writes, “We are saved from forever pain, because God pierced the dark and came to the pinpoint [smallness] of us in the universe and took the nails.”
Never has the darkness seemed so real to me, or the light seemed so sacred and beautiful. I love that the Christmas season comes at the darkest time of year because it reminds me that Christ comes at the darkest time of our lives.
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