The true light of Christmas
I have to admit that we don’t really know the day on which Jesus was born. But I think the church of long ago was wise to decide to celebrate his birth on December 25.
We can do with a good celebration to lighten the cold gloom of winter. After all, December is the darkest month of the year when the days are short and the nights long.
The Christmas lights that illuminate shopping centres and housing estates are an attempt to defy the darkness.
Some people go to great lengths to cover their houses with lights in all shapes and colours. They proudly display their brightly lit decorations in the form of Santa Claus, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, snowmen and so on. It must cost them a packet when it comes to their electricity bill, but their efforts certainly lend a cheering glow to the Christmas season.
But best of all, Jesus Christ came to bring light and joy into this dark world. He came to destroy the forces of evil that enslave us in sin. He entered our world to set us free and give us hope in place of despair. In Jesus, light overcomes the darkness.
That is why Christians celebrate his coming at Christmas time. We rejoice that the Son of God became man to deliver us individually from the darkness of sin. He died in the place of sinners to bring us back to God. He then rose from the dead having defeated the power of the grave.
Now Jesus says to all who will listen, ‘I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life’ (John 8:12). It is just as we sing it, in the words of the old Christmas carol,
Silent night, holy night,
Son of God, love’s pure light.
Radiant beams from Thy holy face,
With the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth;
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth.
Guy Davies
