Christmas: Of Darkness & Light

Christmas moves me on so many levels. There’s the smell of pumpkin and spice still lingering after Thanksgiving, peppermint starts getting in stuff, and the citrus, oh, all that beautiful citrus. Did I mention my wife’s cinnamon bread? Let me mention that…it moves me.
 
But that’s just the physical. What I also, and more importantly mean is how Christmas moves me in mind and spirit. The more I age, I mean…mature, the more I realize how much I think in simile, metaphor, and story. I process things by comparing them to other things, and often that comes out in story, verbal images, even poetry. Okay, well that made me sound more sophisticated than I am, but hopefully you “catch my drift.”
 
There is something about Christmas that sends my story-loving self into overdrive. This year, I think I know what it is – that Christmas is that kind of fantastical mystery that enthralls every ounce of my being with wonder, fascination, and joy. It also seems to harden my tendency to lean toward certain tropes, and one that always rises to the surface for me. I’m stinkin’ fascinated by the relationship of light and dark. It is present throughout “The Reaper’s Seed Series,” which I am still writing, and it was a central idea in “The Shadow Tribe Series.” Don’t be surprised if future stories I write find me still enjoying this over-used, but totally relevant idea. Well, guess what?
 
The Light vs. Dark trope is a Biblical trope. It is at the very center of God’s creation of the world, the Fall, his promised salvation, Christ’s coming into the world, and what he became for us as exiled rebels.
 
Isaiah 9:2 – “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.”
 
John 1 is one of the coolest, simplest, deepest portions of Biblical scripture written about the person of Jesus Christ. Go read it – light vs darkness. Jesus the Light came into our Darkness to give us sight, and make us alive in Him. That’s Christmas. It’s Christmas lights that shine in the dark, warming our cold hearts toward the love of God shown in this fantastical event of Immanuel. It’s the star that announced the coming of the Light into the world, the very same being who “hovered over the waters while darkness was over the surface of the deep,” and then said, “Let there be light.”
 
Christ is The Light in Christmas that pierces the overwhelming dark of this world. May you see Him this year, the one light that never goes out no matter how much the darkness presses in on you.
 
Merry Christmas.

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