The Light That Overcomes Darkness

"Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light for my path." — Psalm 119:115

"God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all." — 1 John 1:5

"Jesus spoke to them again, 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

As Christmas approaches, the world around us fills with human-created lights. Streets glow, homes shimmer, and candles flicker in darkened churches. Yet all these lights are only signs pointing to a far greater reality: the light of Christ.

Christ's light does not merely decorate our lives; it penetrates and illuminates them. It reveals who God truly is. Christ's light also reveals who we are called to be—children of God. It opens our hearts and minds to the love, truth, goodness, and beauty of God, even as it exposes the shadows within us that we would rather keep hidden.

In the Christmas story we begin to encounter Christ's light in the infant named Jesus, who grows into adulthood to exemplify and reveal the human face of God for us: truth that does not dominate but invites, a goodness that heals, and a beauty that radiates from self-giving love.

God does not come to overwhelm us with power. Instead Christ's light illuminates our deepest longings and shows us that they are fulfilled not in things, but through loving and meaningful relationships with God, with others, with ourselves, and with material creation.

Christ's light is searching. It exposes the darkness of our pride-filled egos that seek to place ourselves, rather than God, at the center of creation. It reveals our inordinate desires for finite pleasures, possessions, power, and prestige which promise happiness, but ultimately leave us empty, restless, disillusioned, and divided.

In the glow of Christ’s light, we see how easily we substitute what is temporary and finite for what is infinte and eternal in God's reality; how readily we cling to our illusory self-control rather than surrendering to and trusting in God; and how often we turn inward in self-absorption rather than allowing God's love to radiate outward through us.

This revelation is not meant to condemn us, but to save and heal us. Christ’s light calls us to repentance—not as a burden, but as a grace.

Repentance is the honest and wilful turning of our heart away from that which leads us to enslavement to sin, and turning towards our unconditionally loving and caring God who seeks us to become the best version of ourself. It is the willingness to acknowledge and name our sin, and to step out of its shadows.

To repent is to surrender to God and receive God’s forgiveness anew, to allow God’s mercy to wash away our self-deception, fear, shame, and guilt, and to restore us to the freedom of being God’s beloved children and, through God's continuing grace, living in the light of Christ.

But the light of Christ does not stop at personal conversion; it sends us outward to love others as God loves us. Those who have truly encountered Christ's light cannot remain closed in on themselves. Love received is to be love given.

We are called to recognize and see Christ's light that exists at the core of everyone; and especially in the poor, the forgotten, the lonely, the unwanted, the outcasts, the marginalized, and those who suffer. Jesus invites us to lay aside our self-centered interests and to reach out in loving, selfless service to others, especially those in need. In doing so, we become a doorway to the very light of Christ that we have received through God's grace and that enlightens us.

As Christmas draws near, you are invited to stand humbly before the light of Christ. You need not fear what it reveals.

For Christ’s light uncovers darkness only to overcome it with love, truth, peace, justice, joy, freedom, compassion, goodness, mercy, healing, forigivenss, and salvation. May you allow the light of Christ to continue to shine through your thoughts, words, and actions throughout the entire year, as an instrument to help illuminate Christ's light to a world so desperately in need of experiencing its reality anew.