Have you noticed how gloomy the sky has been the last few weeks? Barely seeing any blue sky recently and the sun going down earlier and earlier could make for a dismal time right now. Mr. Pettway recently said something to me that keeps ringing in my ear, “If it wasn’t for Christmas, December would be the most depressing month of the year.” The darkest, coldest part of the night is just before the lights of dawn appear.
It reminds me of the 400 years of silence from God between the last prophet of the Old Testament, Malachi, and the announcement of the birth of the Messiah. The people of God had been exiled and scattered multiple times. They are now under the oppressive rule of the Roman Empire. And bursting onto the scene of the global landscape is a baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a feed trough of a barn. Angels announced his birth, but to shepherds. Here is the Messiah, the one promised from the beginning to restore things back to the way God originally intended before Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden. But he is just a lowly baby born to a lowly carpenter and his wife.
If you and I were writing a story of how God came to earth to rescue mankind, I think we would start the story very differently. But I also think we would write the end of his time on earth differently too. Betrayed, falsely accused, and executed? Sounds like how we would write the ending for the villain, not the hero. Yet Jesus came ultimately to die for me and for you. His death is a payment for our sins.
Darker than the gloomy early evenings we’ve been having lately was the state of my heart and life before I met Jesus. The light of the gospel has shown its way into every aspect of my life that it even shines into the darkest recesses where I hoped no one would ever find out. And I have been made new.
The contrast of darkness to light of our gloomy skies and the lights of our Christmas trees, pale in comparison to the contrast between the spiritual darkness of this world and the light of God’s glory. It can be scary to allow the light to shine on those shameful things that we regret from our past, but it is the only way to true healing. Repentance comes before forgiveness.
Have you given your life to Jesus? Have you experienced the light of God’s holiness penetrating your heart? Have you seen your need for being rescued from your sin? Have you repented of your sin, asking for forgiveness, and surrendering your life to Him? It is only by surrendering to Jesus that you will finally see the true light of His truth and glory. And once you do, it will be by that light that you will be able to see and make sense of everything else in life.
If what I have written about brings up questions for you, it would be my honor to have a conversation with you. Please do not hesitate to reach out.
Love God, love others, start at home,
Mr. Jeremy Woody