A few days ago there was quite a heavy fog in the town where I live. (When I say heavy, I mean more than I’m used too, and it considerably restricted sight). I was giving a friend a lift somewhere in the afternoon when the light was failing, and that combined with the fog meant that visibility was very poor. But as we were driving along, you could see colorful lights on some of the houses. The bright lights showing through the dark and fog was really beautiful. We couldn’t see the houses they were attached too, but lights flickering or shaped like a reindeer just kept coming into sight as we drove past.
The beginning of John’s gospel introduces Jesus as ‘a light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it’. As I was driving past the lights, it struck me how powerful they were. The plain brick houses were all but hidden, even cars were hard to see, but the lights broke through the gloom. The headlights of the cars gave a warning and guidance about where to drive. The lights of the street lamps lit the road(ish). And the Christmas lights created patterns that were nice to look at and lifted the mood on an otherwise gloomy and subdued afternoon.
How often have we been going through a patch in our lives where things have seemed dark and gloomy? Maybe it’s hard to see where to go next, or even to see much other than that which is right in front of us. It can be easy to get dismayed and discouraged in those times.
But Jesus came to be a light, to show the way. Its not always easy to see because we can get focused on the ‘fog’. But the lights do shine out, even (especially?) when things are at their darkest. The light can be words in the bible, or the presence or voice of a friend, or even Jesus’ voice itself speaking directly to our hearts.
Not just this advent, but all through the year, when things get dark and the path seems hard, pause for a moment and look for the light. It’s a light of hope telling you to keep going. It’s a light of reassurance that you are not alone. It’s the light that is Jesus who will never leave you, who shows you the way to the Father.
The Reason for my Hope Blog 