Christmas Contrast
Con | trast: 1. differ strikingly; 2. a person or thing that shows differences when compared with another
Few people drive around to see Christmas lights in the middle of the day. Even if the homeowner leaves their display on and twinkles are detectable, disappointment will be the lasting sensation. Following dusk, the difference is remarkable. Most people drive around and look at Christmas lights when it is dark, and the darker the better. Contrast is key, the darker the night the more magnificent the light. Those who enjoy staring at the heavenly constellations know this well. The prophet Isaiah, who lived hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus, paints a picture of a spiritually dark region in Israel…Galilee. Here were the unclean, the unworthy, the destitute and lost, those running and “thrust into utter darkness.” Spiritually speaking, this area was not dusk with hints of sunset, it was an overcast midnight with a new moon. Yet, Isaiah tells the people of his day that God has orchestrated a contrast to display His glory in a way that would envy even Clark W. Griswold.
“If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn. Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. They will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness. Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan – The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”
— Isaiah 8:20b-9:2
Out of a place overcast with sin came the most brilliant display of illumination. Isaiah was telling a people then what we already know now, the radiance of God’s glory, the bright Morning Star, the Light of the world was coming to Galilee. Amidst a region seen as spoiled by paganism, the eternal Son would be born in flesh. The contrast was set. “The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world” (John 1:9). For the darkest, most destitute sinners in Galilee, by providence their very debasement postured them to see their need for a glorious Savior. Out of the darkest hearts Christ shines the brightest. And so, it should be with us. Are you seeing His brilliant grace casting light into the darkest recesses of your heart? Or does Jesus feel more like a seasonal festivity? Larry Crabb once said, “the more accurately we see ourselves, the more dependent (on Jesus) we realize ourselves to be.” Or in other words, the more we grow in humility seeing the shadow of our own depravity, we the more crave for and run into the Light. May all displays of Christmas lights remind us to look past them and remember the more marvelous, the more radiant Light of all. The One, who without, we would all still be in darkness. And may we be led to see our own “righteousness” shadowed by His glorious beauty.
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ – 2 Corinthians 4:6
Application:
Where do you tend to lean into the broken, darkness of your heart and not into the grace-filled light of Jesus?
How is God calling you to “grow in humility” and crave more of the light?
Would you be willing this Christmas season to take a drive to take in the lights and remind yourself of Jesus coming to bring you out of darkness into His marvelous light and journal about it?
If you are struggling to “see the light,” and your soul feels dark, Burke Care would love to walk alongside you and gaze together at the true Light.
