“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. On those living in a pitch-dark land, light has dawned.” (Is. 9:2).
There is a familiar hymn whose chorus reads, “For the darkness shall turn to dawning, and the dawning to noonday bright, and Christ’s great kingdom shall come on earth, the kingdom of love and light” (We’ve a Story to Tell to the Nations, H. Ernest Nichols).
The words establish two realities regarding humanity’s situation. One is that we find ourselves in darkness, and the second is the promise of Divine restoration. Our spiritual blindness is not permanent if we surrender to the Holy One’s presence, who comes to reveal a new way forward, a new hope.
Advent is about our need for both the dark and the light, for it is in our deepest darkness that we move into hope. Our sorrow forces us to look for crevices of light. Without knowing the darkness, the light would not shine with a splendor that captures us and never lets us go. Our rebirth into the Son light is an expression of joy with faith at the very core. Out of the headwaters of belief, rivers of living waters flow.
But our faith starts in the darkest of circumstances, a glimmer of hope that, at first, is very faint. We must search for it. We who walked in darkness know what it is like to find a way out. We are living testaments of the glory of God’s handiwork. May Advent bring you hope beyond all understanding and light at the end of an exceedingly long tunnel.
From a Pastor's Point of View 