The People Walking in Darkness Have Seen a Great Light

As Handel was writing Messiah, the oratorio, just before the wonderful prophecy from Isaiah 6:6-7, titled For Unto Us a Child Is Born, he wrote an aria from Isaiah 6:2 which reads, The people walking in darkness have seen a great light;on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. 

In addition to reading a couple of new Christmas books this season, I have been reading a book that relates people's near death experiences. While many experiences are similar, they have one thing in common - light. Every single account of a heavenly encounter has light in it. Light that radiates from a central area, light that radiates from heavenly beings, light that is very different from sunlight or artificial light. Light. In some of these accounts, the person involved comments on this light, because it is unlike anything they have every seen. Some of the accounts observe that their are no shadows. On earth, that is nearly impossible, because there are always shadows on the opposite side of the light source. Not in Heaven, the light source in omnipresent.

How about the shepherds? How do you think the Glory of the Lord manifested itself to them? An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. Luke 2:9. I think the operative word here is "shone." Light shines... What an encounter for these shepherds. The night shift was supposed to be quiet, restful. Luke tells us that after they had found the Christ child, and had worshiped Him, The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. Luke 2:20 They had an encounter with The Light.

The Magi knew the prophecies of the coming king of the Jews, but it was the Light that compelled them to find him. After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. Matthew 2:9-10 I don't believe that the Magi would have traveled as far as they did just because of the prophecies. After all,, who could decipher the exact time frame? It was the Light, the star that moved, that caused them to set out on their arduous journey. What was the result of their encounter with The Light? ...they were overjoyed.

One of the ways we can celebrate Christ's coming this year is to shine His Light through us. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:6 A watching world desperately needs to see The Light, shining through us. The other thing you might consider is to find a copy of Handel's Messiah and listen to the first part, the Advent-Christmas section. The powerful scriptures, set to wonderful music, will inspire you to seek The Light.