The Advent season is a time of anticipation, waiting, and preparation. During the month of December, Time With God will break from its regular format to explore selected passages and characters connected with the coming of Jesus, Emmanuel, God with Us.
GETTING STARTED
If you were to ask my children what their favorite part of the Christmas season is, their inevitable first response would be presents (of course!). But apart from the presents, there is something else they express love for quite frequently: the lights of Christmas. The illumination of the season—bokeh around every corner—brings joy, warmth, and all the feels. It’s no wonder that we string copious amounts of lights and seek out their glowing beauty at this time of year. It is, after all, the time of year when we mark the advent of a very great light.
READ THE WORD: JOHN 1:1-14 (ESV)
1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world…
14And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-9, 14)
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)
I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. (John 12:46)
English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
RESPOND TO GOD
He was there, in the beginning, summoning the light and separating it from the darkness. “The true light” created and corralled unfathomable radiance into sun, moon, and stars; he deliberately parted the darkness and the light.
And long ago, on a night that set loose the praise of heaven and astounded shepherds among their flocks, one perfect striation of light pierced deep into the darkness of our fallen world. The Word came to visibly dwell among us. Light in our human darkness, God resided with us. “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6). In Jesus, we glimpse the glory of God. He is the light that continually shines, never to be overpowered by the darkness.