This week’s devotional was written by Mark Sorenson and is entitled, Deep Darkenes and a Great Light. Mark Sorenson contributing author at seedbed.com. We hope you will be encouraged.
ISAIAH 9:2
The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
a light has dawned.
CONSIDER THIS
One of my favorite times of the day during the season of Advent is early in the morning before the sun comes up when the house is perfectly quiet and still. I’ll fix a cup of coffee, grab my Bible, turn on our Christmas tree lights in the living room, and settle into my favorite chair. There’s nothing quite like reading the Word by the light of the Christmas tree.
This morning, while reflecting over this devotional by twinkly lights, I must confess that I got curious. When did the first Christmas tree with electric lights happen, and what was the story with that? Good news. There’s a Wikipedia page for that.1
The year was 1882, and his name was Edward Johnson. Though you may not be familiar with his name, you might be more familiar with who he worked for: Thomas Edison. Edward Johnson was Edison’s associate and served as the vice president of Edison Electric Light Company. On a cold day in December, he got a crazy idea to invent walnut-sized light bulbs in the colors of red, white, and blue and string them on a Christmas tree that would illuminate and flicker when plugged in. Though it didn’t catch on initially, the idea would eventually take root, and by 1930, most homes had them on their trees.
I can’t help but think about how lights have changed over the years. My earliest memories of Christmas tree lights go back to my childhood and visits to my grandmother’s house in East Texas. One of my favorite decorations at her house was an aluminum Christmas tree that had a color wheel that was plugged in next to it. Though that tree didn’t have any lights on it, it was still magic. As the silver aluminum Christmas tree sat there, the color wheel would slowly turn, changing the tree into the colors of orange to green to red to blue. I would literally sit and stare at it, mesmerized. But, by far, my favorite Christmas lights were the ones on the other artificial tree at Grandmother’s house; they were known as bubble lights. They literally got so warm that the liquid inside them would bubble in the spirit of old-school lava lamps.
Though the lights may have changed over the years, their purpose has not: to bring light into the darkness. No matter the setting or surroundings, no matter how dark a room or neighborhood street may be, once you flip on those small Christmas lights, the room or street takes on a different perspective. Illumination minimizes the darkness, and the world is just a little less scary as a result.
That’s the beauty of light, and that was the promise and prophecy Isaiah made seven hundred years before that first Christmas morning.
In Isaiah 9, the Israelites had done it again. Though they were once in captivity in Egypt, God had led them into a place of freedom and the promised land. Yet, little by little, they wandered. The line from the hymn “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” comes to mind: “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.”2 And that is exactly what happened to the Israelites. They wandered, and, as a result, once again, they found themselves in captivity—this time in Babylon.
It had to have been a dark and scary time for God’s people. Yet it was here, within captivity and darkness, that Isaiah would throw out a spark of light and hope: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned” (9:2). How beautiful is this promise? Isaiah was declaring that a time was approaching that not just darkness but deep darkness would soon be illuminated by light, and that light was not just any ordinary light, it would be a great light.
Deep darkness cannot stand against the Great Light that is to come.
What was true seven hundred years before Christ’s birth is just as relevant for us today, some two thousand years after his birth.
Perhaps a good suggestion for today is this: plug in this truth and shine that over the dark places of your life today.
THE PRAYER
God of wonder, we thank you for light. What comfort it brings us all to know that darkness does not and will not have the final word over our lives. Jesus, thank you for being the Light of the World. May we not only hold this light in our lives but shine that light to all we encounter in Jesus’s mighty name. Amen.