United Lutheran

A Message From Pastor Beth

The people who have walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who lived in a land of deep darkness on them light has shined. Isaiah 9:2

   We all know what darkness is, and during the winter months it seems like we live in a land of deep darkness. Ever since the time change and the shift of the sun to the southern hemisphere, our days are shorter than they were in the summer and are on track to get even shorter still until the 21st or 22nd of December when the sun begins its slow journey back to the northern hemisphere. As the days get shorter, the commercials and ads for Christmas begin to flood into our consciousness. Both, I think, contribute to the rise of putting up Christmas decorations earlier and earlier in November, while the calendar still says fall and we still have fall outside our windows. 

I have often wondered if our rush to celebrate Christmas, to decorate and surround ourselves with all the trappings of the holiday aren’t also in response to the darkness that we feel around us, not simply the physical darkness of the shorter days and longer nights.  As the physical light recedes, it can lead to feelings of hopelessness, despair, all the dark things and emotions of life. We rush to illuminate our homes and property in an effort to stave off that darkness that we feel in our hearts, a darkness that can be oppressive and overwhelming. And, while physical light does go a long way in helping us with those feelings of despair and hopelessness, if we simply look to the physical world--the trappings of the holiday--to help us with those things we are missing what God can do for us. Looking only to the holiday to cheer us we miss the true light, the light that penetrates the deep darkness of any heart more than any holiday decorations can. And as Christmas comes and goes, as the holiday recedes into the ordinariness of life, it is the light of Christ that stays with us, not only in darkness of winter but the darkness of the world.  

As we begin the season of Advent, may we look to the horizon to get a glimpse of the light that is coming, not the light of the sun, but the light of the Son, the one who was promised; the one who came to live among us, the one who died for us; the one who will come again, not simply in the future, but today, to brighten our lives, to brighten the world with his hope and his peace. 

A blessed Advent and Christmas to you.