Turn On The Lights

I

n December of 1988, my brother and I purchased a house that turned into a labor of love.  From my perspective, there was much more labor than love but it was a wonderful learning experience and I must say I enjoyed it tremendously. 

The house had been in our community for as long as I could remember and when we acquired it, it was in desperate need of repair.  New wiring, new sheet rock, new plumbing, new molding, new paint, new wallpaper, a new heating system, a new hot water heater, in essence, a new everything.

I distinctly remember the night we succeeded in wiring up a few lights so we could work at night.  After several long evenings working by the light of the setting sun and flashlight, we finally hooked up a few recessed lights, plugged in the house, and threw the switch.  Tada, instant light!  Yes, you read that last sentence correctly.  We had to go outside and plug the house up to the temporary power source to have light.  But it didn’t matter. Where there had been only darkness, now there was light, light that made our work and our lives easier as we steadily worked toward our goal of restoring the house.

Several thousand years ago, the prophet Isaiah described a time when the lights would also be turned on in the house of Israel, light that would shine forth for all the world to see and participate in.  The light he spoke of had nothing to do with remodeling houses; it had everything to do with rebuilding lives.  In Isaiah 9:2 we read, “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.”

This passage of scripture is very familiar and is often quoted at Christmas.  Isaiah was indeed writing of the coming of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the true light coming into the world to light man’s way out of sin and into the light of life.  It is interesting to notice how Isaiah describes the people searching for this light.  Notice he calls them the people who walked in darkness and who lived in the land of the shadow of death.  These words are a perfect description of man without God. 

That is why God sent his son into the world, so that through him the world might be saved (John 3:16-17).  This passage was written to share the joy and the excitement Isaiah felt as he wrote about the day when the light of life would shine forth and dispel the darkness of sin and death.  He describes the Messiah as a great light, a light that the people will see.  No wonder, then, that Jesus refers to Himself as the light of the world and says that no one who follows him will ever walk in darkness (John 8:12).

Are you walking in God’s light today or are is it still dark where you are?  Remember that God gave his son so that we could have not only eternal life, but a daily relationship with him.  God reached down through the lonely darkness, met us in our place of need, and turned the lights on.  Won’t you come into the light today?