Light of the World
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and Blessed Epiphany! I know.... if I am greeting you like this, it has been way too long since I last wrote. But here I am with a renewed desires to blog regularly.
Yesterday I took down our Christmas decorations. As I put away the star that hangs in our kitchen window, I thought about the star that led the Magi to Jesus. The theme of light in the Christmas story has drawn me this year. I think that for next year, I might focus on a few more lights and star decorations but I am getting ahead of myself. Now that we are in the season of Epiphany, we continue to focus on the light God has given.
Isaiah 60:1a says, "Arise, shine, for your light has come...."
(See here for the current lectionary. You can just hold the cursor on the reading and a text box pops up with it.)
Even though the Christmas season is over, it is still a time of rejoicing: the Light of the World has come! This is such good news for "the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it" (John 1:5 NIV). Darkness cannot beat out light. Light always wins. It will never cease to amaze me how lighting one candle or turning on a flashlight completely changes a dark room. Light shines and darkness cannot defeat it.
I love thinking about this so I thought I would take some time to look into some of the other translations of John 1:5. Notice the different translations for the Greek word rendered "overcome" in NIV.
The NRSV mirrors NIV: "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it."
The NASB: "The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it."
The NLT: "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it."
Since I have an NASB concordance, I decided to see other places that Greek word was translated as "comprehend". I ended up in Ephesians 3:14-19.
"For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breath and length and height and depth, and to know that love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God."
What is the Good News? That God loves us and sent us a Saviour. Who is that Light shining in the darkness? Jesus. What is it that the darkness cannot comprehend? The Light - the love of God given to us in Jesus.
As you start 2017, this is my prayer for you. Whenever you feel that the darkness is overcoming you or that the God's light within you could extinguish, seek to comprehend the vastness of God's love.... for you.... for all. One way to do that is to pray these words with as much (or as little) faith as you have. God will strengthen you with His power. God will fill you with His Spirit.
In Christ,
Tracy
Yesterday I took down our Christmas decorations. As I put away the star that hangs in our kitchen window, I thought about the star that led the Magi to Jesus. The theme of light in the Christmas story has drawn me this year. I think that for next year, I might focus on a few more lights and star decorations but I am getting ahead of myself. Now that we are in the season of Epiphany, we continue to focus on the light God has given.
Isaiah 60:1a says, "Arise, shine, for your light has come...."
(See here for the current lectionary. You can just hold the cursor on the reading and a text box pops up with it.)
Even though the Christmas season is over, it is still a time of rejoicing: the Light of the World has come! This is such good news for "the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it" (John 1:5 NIV). Darkness cannot beat out light. Light always wins. It will never cease to amaze me how lighting one candle or turning on a flashlight completely changes a dark room. Light shines and darkness cannot defeat it.
I love thinking about this so I thought I would take some time to look into some of the other translations of John 1:5. Notice the different translations for the Greek word rendered "overcome" in NIV.
The NRSV mirrors NIV: "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it."
The NASB: "The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it."
The NLT: "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it."
Since I have an NASB concordance, I decided to see other places that Greek word was translated as "comprehend". I ended up in Ephesians 3:14-19.
"For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breath and length and height and depth, and to know that love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God."
What is the Good News? That God loves us and sent us a Saviour. Who is that Light shining in the darkness? Jesus. What is it that the darkness cannot comprehend? The Light - the love of God given to us in Jesus.
As you start 2017, this is my prayer for you. Whenever you feel that the darkness is overcoming you or that the God's light within you could extinguish, seek to comprehend the vastness of God's love.... for you.... for all. One way to do that is to pray these words with as much (or as little) faith as you have. God will strengthen you with His power. God will fill you with His Spirit.
In Christ,
Tracy
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