In the beginning

Advent, Day 1

The very first thing he gave us was light. The first words he spoke, his first recorded thoughts towards us, were poured into a black void. 

“Let there be light.”

A quick read of the creation account shows he did not invent the sun, moon, and stars until the fourth day. So what was this first light? 

It was Himself. Jesus. Read again the story you have heard before:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:1-5)

From the very beginning, He was the Word. The Word was our Life. The Life was our Light. I love John’s use of verb tense (yes, I am a nerdy English teacher). The Word was in the beginning, and the Light shines on in the darkness, even now. And all this time the darkness has been trying—and failing—to overcome the Light. 

The darkness is still trying. For many of us, it seems to be winning. 

But “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

In a time when the dark was darkest, there was a man sent from God. He came to bear witness. To bear witness about the light.

Can you hear the excitement? “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world” (John 1:9). But the world did not know him. 

The world does not know him. The darkness presses in.

It is time to bear witness. 

Maybe you need it first. You need to find the light. Are you looking? Let’s start here, with Advent, with his coming. 

The coming of the Light.