From Darkness to Light ...
"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." - John 1:4-5 NIV
"In the pitch dark, cold night, I see a twinkle, a light in the distance. It neither discourages or dissuades my path forward, rather it inspires and draws me. It's enough to lift my spirits, for as long as I don't take it for granted. The more my eyes become accustomed to the dark around me, the more similar and spectacular twinkles I see. Why is it that a scene predominantly dark can radiate more hope than despair? It defies logic that the thing we notice is the light, when it seems overwhelmingly outnumbered by the dark. But here these beacons bring light to my spirit and a new buoyancy to my soul. For, as it is written, 'The light shined in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.' Light dispels dark. Not the other way around. You can see it right here: in this simple, clear night sky." -Anonymous
It was recently pointed out to me that there's beauty in the fact that the longest night of the year falls right at the closing days of Advent, just before we celebrate Christmas. In one way, Advent is simply a remembrance, an opportunity to put ourselves in the shoes of a world pre-incarnation, one that waited and hoped for the wholeness and light a savior would bring. When we look at it that way, embracing the dark around us in this season of much shorter days (for us in the northern hemisphere) actually makes a ton of sense. It's not a doom-and-gloom thing, but really stopping to acknowledge that the world can be - and is often - a pretty messed up and dark place can be pretty healing for us and beneficial. Provided that we don't stay there, but that we trust there is light in a deeper sense, one our Christian tradition knows as the person of Jesus. Acknowledging the darkness helps us appreciate the light, to recognize it and celebrate it for standing out in the midst of a larger tide of its opposite.
And therein lies the beauty of Christmas lights.
I'm convinced a large reason we are attracted to them, comforted by them, is the same reason we find hope in a clear night sky. Something about the light in the darkness... they just STAND OUT, and we are reminded that light cannot be overcome.
The fact that I'm reminded about that is somewhat of a miracle in itself, as I usually find myself tangled in them late at night in some new idea I have for stringing them up! Every year I convince myself that late cold nights are the best time to apply exterior illumination (for pure nostalgia's sake) and every year I seem to then realize it's exceedingly frustrating to push dark colored wire through endless invisible twigs. When the urge to outburst on this frustration finally comes, I sure realize the lights and I have more of a love-hate relationship than I was willing to admit. (This year... 5am putting up "Blinkies" on 20ft tall branches, without the right pole tool to start, definitely not the best scenario for rejoicing.)
The process may be annoying or messy, but the end result has incredible beauty to it, almost regardless of how it's arranged. Because beyond all the flash, color choices, decisions on timers, drop cables and splitters, this season we can find a deeper reason to hang our lights up than maybe we ever considered. To borrow Andrew Peterson's term (from a slightly different context-it's the title of his book on the creative process), we are "Adorning the Dark" when we light it up with these little glass tubes containing electric-hot metal filaments. They bring beauty to a time that for all intents and purposes should be more depressing and difficult because of the longer periods of darkness. Similarly, the seasons of Advent and Christmas celebrate the coming of the greatest light and hope of all the ages to a place and time of "deep darkness" (Isaiah 9:2). And when you are reminded that that darkness has not yet gone away, remember still that the promise of the light has come to fruition: The Light, Immanuel, is WITH us, and indeed IN believers, daily, nightly, always. It cannot be overshadowed or overcome by the dark, it will always light it up.
Be like Christmas Lights today. You don't have to be the sun or a forest fire or an explosion. You don't even need to feel like you have it together or you've arranged yourself in a perfect order for all that pass by to marvel at. You simply need to remember to plug in to the source, and allow that Source to flow through you and shine in this dark world. Your light will not be overcome by the darkness, because it's not only your light to begin with.
Light up the night and adorn the dark.
"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 NIV
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