With sunset creeping before 4pm, the start of December can feel pretty dark and miserable. Perhaps this year more than ever, our news feeds and TV screens are a constant reminder of the darkness of our broken world.  Some of us also find ourselves in dark personal circumstances.
 
Against this dark backdrop we desperately need to be reminded of the LIGHT and hope of the Christmas message. This Christmas at ETCC – and particularly in our True light drama (5pm, 17th December) - we’ll be reflecting on the theme of darkness and light which is picked up at the start of John’s gospel.  It’s actually a theme which runs through the whole Bible story.  Think about it:

The first words that the Bible records God saying are "Let there be light!".  And there was light!  But it's only a couple of short chapters before the darkness of sin and death enters the world.  The Old Testament traces the story of man's continued and repeated rejection of the light, and the darkness of God's judgement. But wonderfully, through those dark days, God repeatedly assures His people that the darkness would not ultimately overcome the light.  Isaiah 9, a familiar Christmas reading, promises that there "will be no more gloom for those who are in distress" and points forward to the day when "the people walking in darkness" will see a "great light".  

The first Christmas sees the dawning of that light as the "Light of the World" steps on the scene.  The gospel writers describe Him being, and bringing light and life to the blind and the lame, to the rich and the poor, to the wise and the foolish and the hopeless and the outcast.  Three of his disciples witness him on the mountain top - transformed: his clothes “shining brighter than a flash of lightning”!  But that display of glory was not the climax of Jesus' mission.  No, He came to take upon himself the deepest darkness of human sin, in His body on the cross.  Darkness fell – in the middle of the day – as He faced God’s judgement for our sin.  On that cross he died the death we all deserve, in order that He might give the “light of life” to all who believe. And to prove it, He rose to life Himself! 
 
Revelation 22 describes what a wonderful reality those trusting in Him now have to look forward to!  “They will see His face.  There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light.  And they will reign forever and ever.”

Do join us on 17th December at 5pm and at our other Christmas services as we rejoice in the dawning of the Light of the World: the one who came to us from heaven “to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace”.
 

- Rachel Jones, Women's Worker