This time of year as the days get shorter and as we lose a little more light each day, I often have a difficult time shaking the feeling that darkness seems to be winning the battle with light. And this physical experience bleeds over into my interpretation of most other events and I often find myself noticing the darkness more than the light.
There are wars on every continent. 16 million people are in need of immediate treatment for drug and alcohol abuse. One in four adults suffers from a diagnosable mental disorder. 20 million are suffering from depression. About 15 million people are unemployed in the United States. 100 million people are homeless around the world. Darkness does seem to have the upper hand when you look at the statistics and there are days that I can feel despair creeping up on me.
At a time when the darkness seems to be getting a bit overwhelming I am all the more grateful for the hopeful season of Advent that is upon us. The word advent simply means arrival or initiation or coming and it is in this season that the church joyfully remembers the coming of Christ to the world. During this season we light candles to remind ourselves that Christ’s coming means that darkness doesn’t win and that the coming of the light means that the dark will be less dark.
We light candles as a reminder that light always trumps night and that from the beginning of the story light won the coin toss and started the game. “And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.” (Gen 1:3-4) This is a hopeful beginning.
We light candles during advent to remind ourselves that darkness doesn’t win. We are reminded of in the middle of God’s story that just when there seemed to be more darkness than light a virgin would conceive a child and he would be called Emmanuel, “God with us”. This child was God in the flesh and he came to live with his people and light their way. Isn’t it good to know that this child had been there at the beginning when light was separated from darkness so that we can trust him to continue to do the same for us today? In this child was life and that life was the light of all people. This light would shine in the darkness, and the darkness would not overcome it. (Matt 1:18-23; John 1:1-9) Now this is someone to hope in.
In the middle of our year when outside our windows and sometime inside our lives there is more dark than light, it is good that advent comes to remind us that there is a Light that has come to us. And although there is still darkness there is also the light and we can be confident that the darkness will not overcome it and that there will never be a statistic that will overcome, extinguish, cancel out or trump that light.
We light candles during advent to remind ourselves that darkness doesn’t win and that at the end of the story darkness is done away with for good. No longer will there be any curse. There will be no more night. We will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give us light. God will wipe every tear from our eyes and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. (Rev 21:3-5; Rev 22:3-5) Now this is something to hope for.We celebrate Advent and light candles to remind us that there is a great hope. A hope that is not bound to our circumstances and that is not tied or tethered to the darkness we encounter in our day to day but rather a hope that can be an unshakeable anchor for our soul. As we experience some of the darkest days of the calendar year, days where there the light is fading by 3:00 in the afternoon, let us anchor ourselves to the sure and certain hope of a Christ who was and is, and is to come.
