Through Advent, every day gets darker until we arrive at the cusp of Christmas. Winter solstice—December 21st– is the longest night of the year. Light increases each day following.
Christmas comes during the time of year pagans marked the winter solstice, the shortest day–but the end of encroaching darkness. It’s a feast to celebrate light overcoming darkness.
Christmas comes near Hanukkah–the Jewish festival of lights—commemorating victory over an effort to eradicate Jewish civilization. It’s a feast to memorialize one day’s worth of sanctified oil fueling a lamp for eight days. Eight days to celebrate light overcoming darkness.
Twenty-twenty has been a year of darkness and separation. My husband and I stood in our kitchen a couple of weeks ago, both of us steeped in a COVID fog of fever and cough. The radio played “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” I pointed out the lyric—“Next year all our troubles will be far away,” commenting that this year’s troubles were unimagined last year.
I imagined people singing that song in 1944—the year Judy Garland first sang it in Meet Me in Saint Louis. The movie opened in November of that year.
Imagine going to the theater to see a light musical—and to watch newsreels. People got their information from newspapers, radio, and movie newsreels—the precursor to television news.
What you’d see in newsreels around then might have included a race riot among US military personnel at Guam. Bandleader Glenn Miller’s plane disappearing over the English Channel. A typhoon hitting Admiral Halsey’s fleet in the South Pacific, costing America almost 800 souls. And Axis forces surrounding US troops at Bastogne.
Much of the news was grim. But Allied forces were pushing back. General Anthony McAuliffe, the American commander at Bastogne, responded to a German demand for surrender with one word: “Nuts.”
In dark days, light emerged.
It’s hard to perceive the depth of darkness people felt when we know now how the story ended. Allied forces converged; McAuliffe’s rebuttal stands as a rebuke to defeat.
But it’s harder to see the light when we sit immersed in the darkness of our own days with little hint of light ahead.
Was it a dark and starless night before the angels came to the shepherds? They were shepherds who’d been waiting for the coming of Messiah. They didn’t expect a blast of light and music with angels singing news of His coming.
The shepherds outside Bethlehem that night were Levitical shepherds. Ironically, they were ritualistically unclean. They walked through feces. They touched dead things.
The angel told them to find a baby lying in a manger and wrapped in swaddling cloths. To shepherds raising sheep for Levitical sacrifice, swaddling cloths would be vastly significant. For a lamb to qualify for sacrifice it had to be perfect, without blemish.
The shepherds swaddled lambs intended for sacrifice–they wrapped them in cloths to protect them. The angel saying that they would find the infant wrapped in swaddling cloths indicated the baby would be a sacrifice. That baby was the Messiah.
Many would have expected a Jewish king to be born in Jerusalem–the city of the king–not Bethlehem. But Bethlehem was the City of David–a keeper of sheep.
God’s choice of a birthplace for his son wasn’t just a fulfillment of prophecy–which it was. It was also a symbol that Christ the King would be the fulfillment of sacrifice on our behalf.
Christ was the sinless Son of God, the perfect Lamb to be sacrificed for the shepherds’ sins–for our sins—for the things we walk through and touch that make us unclean.
God invited the unclean to see His Son. Those who reject Him today are yet among the invited.
People seek purpose and meaning today. But they cannot find it without Christ. He brings peace on earth–within our hearts. He is the perfect sacrifice for us.
Christmas proclaims the coming of a King who is the light who overcomes darkness.
“Jesus spoke to them again, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life,’” John 8:12.
There is a Christmas light to light the world–Christ Himself.
“And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth,” John 1:14.
Emmanuel—God with us. Let His light shine.
Such truths here Ms. Nancy. I’m praising God that you are feeling better, but saddened that I hadn’t paid attention enough to know you and your hubby were ill ma’am. Loved this post! While still in this world, we are surrounded by darkness. Our job is to let God’s light within us shine out into the darkness. And to Satan, I say, “Nuts!” God’s blessings ma’am.
Nuts to Satan. Amen, J.D. Thanks and God bless!
I praise God for the Light that God send into our dark world. Light that won’t fade – even in 2021.
Amen, June. And the darker the days, the brighter the light shines. Thanks and God bless!
So thankful for the Light who has come to us. Continuing to seek His Light daily.
Amen, Janice. Seeking Him daily is wisdom. Thanks and God bless!
I had never the information about shepherds swaddling the sheep designated for slaughter. I found it very interesting. God took so much effort to make every detail important. Wonderful post.
Thanks, Yvonne. God is a God of detail. God bless!
Shine His light. Amen. I pray we all learn to shine His light.
Amen, Melissa. Thanks and God bless!
God promises light in the midst of darkness. We know that He is the giver of hope. And the unclean He makes clean.
So glad to know He is the Way to become clean. Thank you, Barbara. God bless!
Darkness cannot exist where there is light. This is such an encouraging post and I appreciate the reminder that the light of Christ overcomes our darkest days.
So glad to have encouraged you. Thanks, Joshua, and God bless!
So glad you are on the mend. You are so right: God shines the light before us, and His light overpowers the darkness.
Light shines its brightest in the darkness. Thanks, Jessica. God bless!
Beautifully written, Nancy! Light overcomes darkness through Christ our sacrificial Lamb, Savior and King. Who could imagine such a gift of love? Yet, that is what God has offered those who will believe. May His love outshine any other darkness around us.
May His love shine, indeed. Thanks, Melissa, and God bless!
This is so moving, Nancy! My heart filled up with joy and gladness as I moved through the paragraphs of this post, from your COVID troubles to our world’s troubles in WW2, and on to the challenges we all meet day by day. And yet, in the darkness God was already working out his plan for the Light to shine upon us. He built the clues into everything from the alignment of the stars to the wrapping of the sacrificial lambs. Thank you for sharing all of the pieces of the puzzle in such an uplifting way! Well done!
Thank you, Melinda. God is an amazing author of history. God bless!
I can so relate to the dirty shepherds. Before I was a Christian, I was stuck in the muck of sin, dirty, doubting and downcast. But the Lord cupped His hands under my downcast gaze, and lifted my head up towards Him. He had mercy on this troubled soul, and now I lift my eyes up to the mountains, knowing where my help comes from. He is the hope of this world!
He is the hope of the world, indeed, Lisa. Thanks and God bless!
I love this:
The shepherds swaddled lambs intended for sacrifice–they wrapped them in cloths to protect them. The angel saying that they would find the infant wrapped in swaddling cloths indicated the baby would be a sacrifice. That baby was the Messiah.
I had not heard that before. Thank you so much!
Thank you, Holly! God bless!
Hey Nancy, glad to see you back among us. Hope you are recovering from the effects of Covid. Powerful post! Fresh insight about the shepherds and thankful to consider how much God’s light really does dispel the darkness.
Thank you, Karen. Keep shining that light. God bless!
Hallelujah and Maranatha Amen-Amein Sister in Jesus-Yeshua Christ-Messiah Nancy!!
Yes JESUS-YESHUA is the TRUE LIGHT of this EARTH!!
Love Always and Shalom, YSIC \o/
Kristi Ann
Thank you, Kristi Ann. God bless!