When my brother-in-law first visited Suffolk, he thought he had gone to another planet. He is originally from north London, and felt very uneasy without traffic noise, people shouting outside, and particularly the absence of street lighting.
I actually quite like not having street lights. When we first moved to our house we had a security light outside on a movement sensor, and I think all the wildlife used to congregate outside to have a party. The light soon got removed!
Light in the darkness is important though – our milkman delivers the milk in the depths of night and has to negotiate his way up various footpaths to all his customers. We have on occasions woken up in the middle of the night to see a head torch light bobbing in one direction and then back again.
I have occasionally had to cycle home in the dark. I’m not keen on night cycling and it is clear, (pardon the pun), that a powerful bright light is needed both to see and be seen.
John the Baptist came to “ make straight the way of the Lord.” He did not profess to be the light in the darkness, but to set out the way for one much more powerful, much brighter than himself.
Jesus is or can be that bright powerful light in our lives. He helps us find our way along unfamiliar footpaths of life. He guides us through the fog of uncertainty. He has come before us, to shine a bright light in our lives, so that we can see our way more clearly, but also, be warned, so that we can be seen more clearly.
May we all allow the light of Jesus to shine on and before us this Advent time. AMEN