Enduring Light | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: Enduring Light | Previous Challenge Entry
By Beck Gambill
11/02/08
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The forms of Christmas lights are varied and many, pleasing the eye and touching the emotions. White lights twinkle on a tree flooding the memory of Christmases past. Blinking lights draped on festive houses delight children young and old. Bright stars light the tops of Christmas trees in homes and city squares. Purple, pink and white candles flicker in the advent wreath reminding of prophecies spoken long ago. City lamp posts festooned in lights herald the season. Bubble lights cheerily perched on the tree branch remind me of special family traditions. Boats in the harbor join in the festivities with masts ablaze, outlining the shape of Christmas trees. The city’s skyscrapers blink warm holiday greetings. All echo an ancient Light’s dawning.

All of these lights warm and wonderful remind us of a better, brighter, more enduring light. “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned,” Isaiah 9:2 (NIV). In a world full of turmoil and uncertainty there is hope in the everlasting light of Christ. His light has been shed in the hearts of those he loves. While we enjoy the twinkling lights of Christmas, may we remember the true light is in us.

As we enjoy the lights of Christmas shining merrily around us, will we notice those in the shadows where no light shines? In a nursing home lives an old woman who sits alone in a cold room with no family, no hope, and no joy. Will we venture into her quiet corner of the world and light the candle of her heart with the flame of Christ burning in us? There is a child living with the shame of a father in prison and no money for the extravagance of a Christmas gift. Will we offer the gift of love and kindle the light of love in his heart because we cared? A single man will sit at home without a family to share the warmth of the season and no understanding of the hope it holds. Will we share our table with him this Christmas and ignite in his life the promise of belonging? Will we see them? Will our light touch them?

As the season fades, the strings of Christmas lights will come down, extinguished until next year. Yet Christ’s light will never fade. The light of salvation is the one constant, the one true hope in this uncertain world. Shining the light of Christ to a dark and hurting world goes beyond Christmas, it is our calling, it is our purpose.

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