One cold Christmas night a generation ago, a family sat huddled around the fireplace. It was getting late and most of the firewood was used up, so the father bundled up his eight-year-old son George, handed him a lantern and sent him to the woodpile by the barn to get some more firewood.
As the young boy stepped out into the darkness, he cried out, "Dad, I can't see all the way to the barn from here."
"That's okay, George," responded his dad, "you know the general direction. Just walk to the edge of the light and you'll find that the light will go with you all the way to the barn."
Later in his life, George wrote that this experience became for him a helpful reminder about how God always stays with us like light in the dark...just like the lantern he carried to the barn one dark Christmas night.
Of all the symbols which help us understand the true meaning of the Christmas story, God as light is perhaps the most popular and always most helpful. From beginning to end, Scripture is filled with this rich symbolism of light.
In the beginning there was darkness upon the face of the deep and God said, "Let there be light." And there was light. And God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the dark. (Gen I)
Psalmists and prophets all draw on this traditional way to reflect God's presence and walking in His light:
Your word is a lantern to my feet, and a light upon my pathway. (Ps 119)
The Lord is my light and my salvation. (Ps 27)
The wonderful reading from Isaiah, appointed for this Christmas Eve, presents the expected Messiah as light:
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined. (Is 9)
Even our secular celebration of Christmas as a holiday uses light as a primary symbol. Our neighborhood knows that when the big house around the corner blossoms the night after Thanksgiving and is covered from doorway to chimney with Christmas lights, the season has begun. The first thing I do when we set up the Christmas tree is string the lights; it wouldn't be Christmas without them. Even Santa's reindeer have had to appropriate this vital symbol of the season, hitching up Rudolph with his nose so bright.
But it is on this holy Christmas night that the light of God's presence is truest and brightest because the Nativity, the birth story of Jesus, is filled with celestial light.
O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie!
Above they deep and dreamless sleep, the silent stars go by
Yet in thy dark streets shineth, the everlasting light;
The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.
The heavens above that little town must have presented quite a light show, a magnificent stage for the Angelic choir to sing their Glorias and Alleluias. And in the middle of it all hung the bright Star of Bethlehem, leading Wise Men and kings to center stage. Like an Aurora Borealis, The heavens were telling the glory of God. The Wise Men found Jesus because they trusted in and followed God's light. They knew from ancient prophecies and tradition that light is a powerful symbol of God's presence in a world of darkness and if they walked with that light they would eventually come to God. My hope and prayer for each of us this Christmas night is that like young George and the ancient Wise Men, we will learn to walk always in God's holy light. Amen.
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