Need a Little Christmas (The Light of the World)

By Mary

The holidays are long over, the new year already speeding along. Still Christmas lights shine from many a house as I walk with my husband and our dog along the darkened streets at night. They all seemed to be brought out early too. "All bets are off this year,” I heard people say, “We all just need some extra comfort and cheer.” I sang snippets of the familiar song in my head as all the lights showed up long before Christmas—We need a little Christmas, right this very minute…And the truth hidden within them struck me. It might not be candles and carols that we’re in need of, but how we need Christmas! How we need Christ and His entering into our world to redeem us! How we need His comfort and hope and light.

 Whether it was the heaviness of the past year or talk of a long, dark winter stretching out in front of us, Jesus as the Light was constantly on my mind at the closing of the year. And whether or not Jesus was actually born in December, I love the beauty of celebrating the Light of the World at the darkest time of the year, the lights sprinkled through neighborhoods and inside our homes becoming a reminder that He is our Light and Life—on the grayest, gloomiest of days, and the deepest darkness in our spirits.

 “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.”