Reflection on Advent

As we draw closer to the end of this Advent season, I have been reflecting upon one aspect of the holiday season. At the beginning of this month my wife and I went out and bought a Christmas tree. After setting it up in its stand we spent a number of hours stringing lights onto the tree. As Christmas Day approaches, many people are putting up decorations around and inside their houses. One of the most popular decorations is strings of lights. These lights are often the classic yellow, but they are sometimes interspersed with all kinds of lights. Some people hang up stings of multi-colored lights. Some go so far as to hang up lights shaped as everything from elves to chili peppers. I find myself asking, “Why do we cover our houses, our yards, and our Christmas trees with lights?”

We have a fascination with light in general, but this fascination seems to increase during the Advent and the Christmas season. Lots of churches light candles in their worship spaces, counting down the weeks to the 25^th. Many churches also hold a candlelight Christmas Eve service, in which people turn the lights off in the sanctuary and raise their candles into the air, mesmerized by the spectacle. What is the deal with all of these lights?

A passage from Isaiah that is often read this time of year says, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness – on them light has shined.” Light is extremely important in the Old Testament. Light is the first thing that God speaks into creation in Genesis 1. Before there is anything else, there is light. Maybe we are fascinated with light because it is rooted at the very beginning of our creation.

But this is not the only part of the Old Testament in which we find light. Light was taken away from the Egyptians in the 9^th plague while the Israelites were being held captive. A physical darkness which could be felt was experienced by the captors, while the Israelites had light before them.

The New Testament is also filled with light. A passage from the second chapter of Matthew is commonly read early in January. It describes the journey by wise men following a star to find the newborn king of the Jews. They follow a beacon of light through the darkness of night to try to find a source of hope. When they are unable to find this speck of light their path falters, but when the star appears again, they are lead to the child Jesus.

In the beginning of the Gospel of John verses 4 and 5 say, “And the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” Light language is used throughout the Gospel of John culminating in Jesus’ statement in chapter 8: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”

All of these Biblical images of light tell us why we find light so important. It reflects and symbolizes the power of creation. It has been the hope for us since the beginning of time, even during times of deep trouble. Light became a metaphor to describe Christ, and Jesus spoke of himself as a light.

But why is this symbol so present for us at this particular time of year? It may be the experience that we in this hemisphere have in December. As the days grow colder we are reminded that it is truly becoming winter. We are approaching the winter solstice which occurs on December 21^st. The winter solstice marks the day in the year with the least amount of daylight. Perhaps this is one of the reasons light is such a strong symbol for us during Advent and Christmas. This is a time of year when it is barely light outside when we wake up, and it becomes dark before many of us eat dinner. Along with this season of short days comes cold weather. Maybe we long for light during this season of long, cold nights.

“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.” We are often people who walk in darkness because we experience darkness all of the time. But as Christmas approaches we begin to see and feel the light that is Jesus. This is where the calendar gets interesting. The length of daylight steadily decreases until the winter solstice. December 21^st has the shortest amount of daylight in the year, and this means that every day after the winter solstice the amount of light in the day increases steadily. It works out that this is when Christmas occurs: right we the light starts to overtake the darkness in number of daylight hours.

So it is that hope is found in the coming of Jesus during this holiday season. Although light may be significant for us because of the darkening days, we find that the hope this symbol brings with it in the birth of Christ is even more powerful. We face the darkness of winter, but God is going to become incarnate, light will break through, and the darkness will be overcome.