Live in the Light
I love Christmas lights. As a kid, one of my favorite parts of Christmas was putting up our outdoor Christmas lights with my Dad. There were always blown bulbs, strands that refused to work, or tangled strings, but the end result was always worth the frustration and the cold fingers.
Now, as an adult, one of my favorite places to be this time of year is in my den, sitting in the dark next to the lit Christmas tree. The lights just give off a warmth that’s hard to describe. It’s hard to imagine Christmas time without lights.
In my last blog post, I wrote about the opposite of light - darkness. And the Bible talks about darkness a lot.
In Isaiah 9:2, darkness represents life before the Messiah’s coming. In Isaiah’s prophecy, “those who lived in darkness” are those who lived before the advent of the Messiah.
In Ephesians 5:8, darkness represents sin and separation from God. As sinners, we all started out “in darkness” because our sins separated us from God. We live in the darkness until we have a love relationship with Jesus Christ.
In 1 John 1:5, darkness represents anything that opposes God. God is light, the opposite of darkness. Since God is perfect, righteous, and holy, darkness represents the opposite – sin of any and every kind.
I could go on, but you get the point. If not for God’s miraculous intervention, we would still live in darkness. Christmas lights wouldn’t be a thing. Christmas wouldn’t even be a thing. Whether we realize it or not, our souls long for light and life. And Christmas is God’s answer to this.
The good news of the gospel – the amazing thing about the birth of Jesus – is that those who have lived in darkness (that’s us!) now have light! Thanks to Jesus’s birth, our lives can now be filled with truth, purpose, love… and LIGHT! We don’t have to live in the darkness any longer! We can live in the LIGHT!
It doesn’t take a science degree to realize that light is essential to life. Not many things can live, grow, and thrive without light. In fact, we would have no food without light! (Can you imagine life without chocolate and coffee?!)
Jesus came to give light to a dark world. The light He offers is His own life – lived sinlessly, laid down sacrificially, and revived victoriously!
But here’s the thing:
Just like a person can choose to leave the lights off and sit in complete darkness, so too can a person choose to ignore Jesus and live life without light, without meaning, without love. And just like we have the ability to turn the lights in our homes off and on at will, so too can we choose to live God’s way or our way each day. Living in the light is a choice – a conscious decision, an intentional action.
My kids are lousy light-turner-offers. Each time they enter a room, they turn the light on. And they leave it on when they leave. Every. Single. Time. The monthly power bill is usually a pretty good indicator of how diligent I’ve been monitoring the light situation at home.
Did you know the Bible gives us an indicator to know if we’re walking in the light or not?
Check out 1 John 2:9-10:
“Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light.”
Pretty simple. If you and I claim to love Jesus and claim to live in His light, then our lives ought to be marked by love. If we’re not living lives of love, then we’re not living in the light.
Light = Love.
And the best way to love others is to show them and tell them about the light and life Jesus brings.
