Longing for the Living Light

* Photo: Courthouse at Christmas in Bryan, Ohio… courtesy of artist Kristine De Leon. *

 “More lights! MORE lights! MORE LIGHTS!!”

My daughter, age two, could NOT believe her eyes the first time she saw the Christmas lights illuminating our town square.  And so she kept asking for more: “More lights! More lights!  More lights!”

Needless to say, my usual five minute drive in our small town turned into a 30-minute search for lights. I pointed out trees and bushes, wreaths and roofs all decked out with luminescent dazzle.

Beauty was made more breathtaking because of her sheer delight.

I can’t stop thinking about our impromptu light hunt for two reasons.  First, my sweet toddler asks for “more lights” every. single. time. we leave the house. That in itself makes the topic hard to forget!

But also, I can’t stop thinking about it because her innocently incessant cry for light echoes the inner plea of humanity; all of us… we desperately long for “more light.”

Failing marriages.  Workplace disappointments. Family tragedies. Natural disasters. Government shutdowns. Physical pain. Chronic illness.  Perpetual loneliness. Chemical dependency. Negative news. Pornography addiction. School shootings. Sex trafficking.  Child abuse. World hunger.  Orphaned children. Broken hearts. Aborted babies.

And on and on and on it goes…

Can you hear the cry beneath it all? We are desperate for “MORE LIGHT!”

We are all longing for the living light ..more and more!!

Is it any wonder, then, that young and old, innocent and calloused, whole and broken, healthy and sick, content and bitter — no matter what our state — we are all a little more soft, a little more tender, a little more hopeful when basking in the light of Christmas that gloriously and warmly and invitingly bursts through the stark nothingness of the dark?

Is it any wonder that Jesus says, “I am the Light of the world. So if you follow me, you won’t be stumbling through the darkness, for living light will flood your path” (John 8:12 LB).

Oh Living Light… flood our paths not only at Christmas but in every day beyond.

Amen. So be it.  And amen.

Crying out with you for more Living Light,

Rhonda