A light that says, "No!"

On Thursday evening, we turned on the lights on our 24 foot Christmas tree. It was a great occasion, and there will be many other opportunities to light candles or enjoy Christmas lights through the coming month. Tiny twinkling lights are an essential part of the Advent and Christmas season up here in the northern hemisphere. Our pagan friends would be happy to tell us of the significance of light at a time when the world seems dark. The past year is dying and something new is about to begin. Those small lights signify the tiny sign that something big and bright is coming.

The lights that appear on our Christmas trees and in our twinkling candlelit carol services, do far more than set the scene for a cosy night in, or indicate the turning of the seasons. For Christians, Christmas marks the turning point in history, when God himself stepped into creation in the tiny twinkling eyes of a baby. Christmas marks the breaking through of the kingdom of heaven into this broken world.

Christmas lights are potentially a great deal more than mere decorations. They are the tiny signs that something big is coming. It is quite appropriate to have them during Advent when we are waiting for the big day itself. They are tiny prophetic signs of the light that is even now coming into the world. They appear, at first in small numbers, and then as the holidays themselves approach, there are more and more of them.

Even one tiny light, is enough to illuminate a room – or rather – to reveal the darker corners. One tiny light, can show the shape of the darkness. Christmas lights are God's "No!" to darkness. Christmas lights are the signs of God's commitment to bring light into the world. When we look at our Christmas lights, let's see in them God's promise to be with us, to be in us, to be near us, through Immanuel, God made flesh.