Christmas Eve. The LIGHT has COME

Prepare to Listen.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
 
Prayerfully Read John 1:1-5
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  2He was in the beginning with God.  3All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.  What has come into being 4in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.  5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
 
Prayerfully Wonder and Reflect
John begins his Gospel with the same words with which the Bible begins--in the beginning.  Think about why John connects the gospel with creation.
 
It’s easy to get sentimental about Christmas with children’s nativity plays, a baby Jesus lying in a manger, carols that claim he was “asleep on the hay… no crying he makes.”  But John’s description of Jesus can’t be turned into sentimental sweetness.  This is no “gentle Jesus meek and mild,” who quietly sleeps in a manger.  Instead, this is the Word, the one who is from the beginning, Creator of all things.  Redemption in Jesus is related to creation.  Christ came into the world and new creation began.
 
An important image throughout John that both describes and explains Jesus is the image of light.  We live in a world where darkness dominates.  Every time I listen to the news, I hear more darkness—a divided nation, broken churches, waring countries, and that’s just the beginning!  It’s all stuff that is mostly beyond our control.
 
The good news is Jesus, who controls the darkness and who said, “I am the light of the world” (Jn 8:12).  He “shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”  Light doesn’t eliminate darkness but keeps shining despite it.  If we only see darkness, we’re looking in the wrong place or at the wrong person.  The light has come.
 
How can you keep looking towards the light that is Jesus, rather than the darkness around you?
 
Prayerfully Respond
Lord Jesus may this Christmas be one where I see more clearly the light that is you and that it can’t be overwhelmed by any of the darkness around us today.  Amen.
 
Live obediently.  Look at the Light.