Christmas Lights (Part I)

The light of the world

It’s Christmas time! The sales are on, the trees are up, and the lights are strung on the houses. Christmas displays can be so varied from the simple nativity or a wreath on the door, to Clark Griswold’s “25,000 Italian-imported twinkle lights.” Something families love to do this time of year is drive around neighborhoods to look at the Christmas lights. The tradition of putting up lights around Christmas time dates back to the 16th Century and is credited to the Protestant Reformer, Martin Buber. In homes, German Lutherans brought the decorated Christmas tree with them; the Moravians put lighted candles on those trees. These candles symbolized Jesus as the Light of the World. Lights have always played an important role in the Christmas story, literally from the very beginning.

“The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. So the Word became human and made his home among us.” (John 1:4, 14)

“Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, ‘I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.’” (John 8:12)

“This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.” (1 John 1:5)

The Christmas story is the story of the most important light: the Light of the World taking on flesh, coming to earth in the form of a baby to teach us a new way and save us from our sins. C.S. Lewis, in his book Mere Christianity, described this miracle this way:

But what God did about us was this. The Second Person in God, the Son, became human Himself: was born into the world as an actual man—a real man of particular height, with hair of a particular colour, speaking a particular language, weighing so many stone. The Eternal Being, who knows everything and who created the whole universe, became not only a man but (before that) a baby, and before that a foetus inside a Woman's body. If you want to get the hang of it, think how you would like to become a slug or a crab.

As we think about Christmas lights this year, let’s not miss the Light that has always been and always will be, and let our decorations, like the lights of those who decorated hundreds of years ago, point to the true Light of the World.

To the glory of the Lord God, whose I am, and whom I serve.