On Light and Dark and Advent
It always amazes me when we make the change from Daylight Saving Time back to Standard Time. Suddenly, we are going home from work in the dark. Suddenly it is very noticeable how dark the world is becoming. It is as the days become shorter and the nights longer that we journey through Advent toward Christmas Day. The date of the modern celebration of Christmas - December 25 - comes from the time of the winter solstice, when the days start getting longer and there is more light. For human beings who need light, it is indeed cause for celebration that the light is returning.
Think how important light is in our celebrations. We put lights on our houses and on our Christmas trees. We light candles at home and in worship. Firelight from a crackling fire warms us.
That's what the season of Advent is about, the longing and yearning for the return of the light, for the blessings of warmth, for the gathering of family and loved ones. It is in Advent and at Christmas that we find the depth of our need and the warmth of God's response.
But even more, Advent is about the deepest longing that people can have - in fact, the source of all true longings - for God and God's presence with us.
And yet even more than that, Advent is about the promise and the announcement of the coming of God's Chosen One. The words from Isaiah, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord," are both a foretelling but also an assurance of God being with us.
Paul called the Ephesians children of light. And that is what we are, for the One who is the Light of the World is drawing near, bringing light to the darkness of war, to the darkness of poverty and intolerance and fear, to the darkness of sorrow and loneliness, illuminating all of the dark places of our lives and of our planet.
So, wait for the light. It's coming. And we need it.
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