Advent: December 24

I love Christmas Eve, for a lot of reasons. But also because this day seems to be filled with light.

Maybe it's the candlelights from the church service. Maybe it's Mom and Dad’s dining room table, donned with candles. Maybe it's the Christmas tree adorned with strands of lights. It's a day filled with light.

And it's interesting that the winter solstice in fact may be why Christmas is on December 25th. Not because that was the day Jesus was born—some think that occurred in June. In the areas around where Jesus was born, this is the time of year that is the most dark. Amidst the darkness, everyone needed light.

Before Jesus even came to be, Isaiah's prophecy described this light He would bring:

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.

Isaiah 9:2

We need light. We need it to see. We need it to live—we'd freeze without the sun's rays. We need it to read and to work and to cook and to clean. We need it when it feels like the tunnel has no end.

And light has come.

Light has come for the darkest places on earth: northwestern Nevada, the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in the Canary Islands, and northeastern France. Light has come for the belittled and the grief-stricken and those carrying heavy burdens. Light has come for the widow and the empty nester and the one craving a family in the first place. Light has come for the ones with broken families and the ones trying to please everybody today. Light has come for the one living paycheck to paycheck and the one feeling completely overworked.

For the darkest places within us and the darkest places on earth, Jesus has come. The greatest gift has come. Light has come.

This Christmas Eve, let's all look for the light.