Christmas: The Light of the World
December 23, 2016
If I asked you what you liked most about Christmas, you may name two or three blessings. You may include the lights of Christmas. In fact, at this Christmas season you may drive around to see them.
Why do people go to all the trouble of putting up lights all over their house? Light points to joy, happiness and the wonder of life. Light focuses on the beauty of the season and the spirit of this special time.
Martin Niemoller, a prominent German pastor, opposed Hitler. Hitler had him imprisoned for almost eight years. On Christmas Eve 1944 in Dachau prison, Niemoller spoke these words about the light and joy of Christmas:
“My dear friends, on this Christmas … let us seek, in the Babe of Bethlehem, the One who came to us in order to bear with us everything that weighs heavily upon us …. God Himself has built a bridge from Himself to us! A dawn from on high has visited us! ... Out of the brilliance that surrounded the shepherds a shining ray will fall into our darkness.”
Niemoller lived with the smell of death penetrating the whole camp but the stench of death could not stop the Light of the World, Jesus Christ, from shining there.
The prophet Isaiah prophesized, “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). We find ourselves surrounded by the prison camp of darkness, sin and death but in the midst of this deep darkness comes the Light of the World Who destroys it so we can walk in the light forever.
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