There is a lot of darkness in our world today. There is an old hymn that says,” Many kinds of darkness in the world are found” and refers particularly to “Sin and want and sorrow.” (‘Jesus bids us shine’ written by Susan Warner 1819-85). We can all recognise the darkness of sin in our lives and hearts; the darkness of want as many live in hunger and poverty; the darkness of sorrow brought about through separation, disease and war.
We are acutely aware of the darkness as we watch and listen to the news as its relayed to us in real time. Natural and man-made calamities and threats beamed into our living rooms while we go about our everyday business become as familiar as the wallpaper on our walls – just background noise behind our daily conversations. But the darker it gets, the brighter the light appears.
The prophet Isaiah lived in dark times. Days when some of his contemporaries had been taken into exile, a time of terror and uncertainty. He wrote, ’The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them a light has shone.’ (Isaiah 9:2) He writes in the past tense as though it has already happened. It would be a happy time.
I remember my own children waking up afraid in the dark. It only took the switching on of a tiny lamp, or a candle in a power cut, to immediately dispel the darkness. Darkness can’t stay alongside the light.
This is the beginning of the season of advent when we look forward in anticipation to the coming of Jesus, Light of the world, conqueror of darkness.
‘Shine, Jesus, shine’