Light

My love of advent began in my teen years before I even had a real relationship with the Lord.  Yep, God was working on me even back then.  My Aunt Emmy took me to visit the historic town of Long Grove, and we stopped at a cute Christmas store.  I bought an advent calendar, and loved the tradition of counting down to Christmas.  As I got older, I continued this tradition, but I also started digging deeper into the meaning of Advent.

Advent literally means arrival, and this season, which starts today, is all about waiting for the arrival of Jesus.  Now, this arrival has two meanings.  It means his birth, which is why you always hear about Advent at Christmas, but it also means the second coming of Christ which we have not seen yet and are all still eagerly awaiting. 

During this Advent season, I am doing a Bible study at home called For All.  It talks about how Jesus came for all of us.  He came for you.  He came for me.  He came for those who have lived and died already, and He came for those who are yet to be born.  I am so very thankful that God sent Jesus for each and every one of us.  He isn’t sitting back picking and choosing who gets to come into Heaven.  He sent Jesus so that each and every one of us may enter His glorious kingdom.  It is up to us if we go or not.  I love this! 

During the study today, the author, Becky Kiser, talked about how God is the light, and she referenced John 1:1-5.    Those verses go like this…

“In the beginning the Word already existed.  The Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He existed in the beginning with God.  God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him.  The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.”

Becky also references 1 John 1:5 which states that “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.”

The exciting part for me is that His life brought light to everyone, and the darkness can never extinguish the light!  The darkness is many things...basically it is anything that is anti-God.  In the Bible study, she talks about how the dark is the unknown and the light is fully known.  This makes sense because God knows all.  We, however, do not.  But if we have God with us, He will help us overcome the darkness. 

Jeffrey always carried a flashlight with him.  I’m not joking.  He felt a little bare without a flashlight and a knife in his pocket.  If he left them at home on accident, he would call and make sure they were in a safe place.  I made sure that he had both when he was buried.  I always loved that he had light with him at all times.  There were so many times it came in handy.  He didn’t just have the physical flashlight with him though.  He also had God with Him at all times, and as we know, God is light. 

After he passed, these verses mentioned, especially John 1:5 and 1 John 1:5, meant a lot to me.  I was afraid and lost.  To be honest, I still am at times.  I absolutely knew then that I would not make it without God, and I still know that now.  The good news is that if I keep walking with God, no darkness can overcome me.  This doesn’t mean that difficult or bad things will not happen in my life.  Wouldn’t that be nice?  But it does mean that no matter what happens, I will overcome the darkness.  Praise the Lord!

I am looking forward to this Advent season.  I’m excited to draw closer to God.  My hope is that by focusing on the true meaning of Christmas I will find some peace in a month that is honestly going to be very difficult for me and my family.