Festive candles flickering in windows. Spotlights illuminating decorated entrances. Colourful lights outlining the contours of homes in the neighbourhood. Laser projected lights bouncing off trees and shrubs. Mini bulbs shining –woven around the decorated tree. In most places, Christmas is a festival of lights. But where light counts most, often it is dark.

Many will not have a merry Christmas. Haunting memories keep some in the grip of darkness. For others, profound loss and grief over the past year are dark clouds that become darker as ornamental lights become brighter. Others fail to see even a ray of cheerful light shining through a crack in the prison cell of their life. Poverty, loss, loneliness, grief, shame, disappointment and despair can be so engulfing that light seems to be non-existent. 

Two thousand years ago, born in a stable in Palestine, Light was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. Yes, Light came to our dark world. Christmas cards are decorated with flickering candles lights, star-lit sky scenes and brightly lit trees. But not so often do you see artists capturing the Bethlehem stable scene where pure light only is shining from the primitive cradle. Often the scenes illuminate the manger with light shining down upon the crib but not projecting out from the crib. But Light in the cradle is the true meaning of Christmas.

The Light in the Cradle is the greatest wonder of the ages. It is the greatest news for you to embrace this Christmas. The wonder of the Incarnation!

Here are the red-lettered words of Jesus:

I have come as Light into the world so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.  John 12:46

I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.  John 8:12

For most readers, it will not come as Breaking News to read that our world rejected that Light. Yes, Jesus was and still is the True Light.

The Apostle John wrote:

There was the True Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every [person].  John 1:9

But even at Bethlehem, dark forces in our world tried to snuff out the Light. King Herod engaged in infanticide by having babies under the age of two killed – hoping his edict would also eliminate the True Light who had arrived on earth from Heaven. (Matthew 2:16) That is shocking, to say the least.

It is still shocking today when people reject the True Light and try to illuminate their lives with cheap discount-value substitutes labelled – Made on Earth.

The good news of Christmas is the True Light can be accepted and embraced without any further delay – even if one has rejected the Light up until now.

God is reaching out to you. He wants you to appreciate why His Son Jesus came down to Planet Earth.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. 1Timothy 1:15

The Bible provides the reason why people rejected the Light when Jesus arrived in Bethlehem and why He is still rejected today. The Apostle John could not have been clearer. He wrote:

This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.  John 3:19

There will be those this Christmas who have experienced the brokenness of sin and the damage caused by evil and they will seek the Light. Some who have experienced the pervasive darkness of sin and inner emptiness at their core, will repent and turn to the True Light – yes, they will turn to Jesus Christ for eternal life and salvation. They will look back on this Christmas as a watershed period in their life.

Once again, consider the red-lettered words of Jesus: “…those who walk in the darkness, cannot see where they are going. Put your trust in the Light while there is still time; then you will become the children of light.” John 12:35-36 NLT

Watch Short Video: The Original Christmas Love Story

I hope you will take the time to read the excerpt below from the Gospel of John Chapter 1. You wouldn’t be the first person to receive Christ the Saviour reading these verses and to have your life and your future lighted up by Him. There is no need for anyone to remain in darkness.

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive HIM, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God. John 1:9-12

Down through the centuries, to this very day, those who enjoy a personal relationship with the Lord, in the family of God experience this reality:

LORD, You light my lamp; my God illuminates my darkness. Psalms 18:28

May you be blessed this Christmas season by the True Light – the Lord Jesus Christ. If you have been closed to Him up until now, may this be the time when you open up the shades of your heart to Him and let His light shine in.