“Let there be light.”—Genesis 1:3
As the holiday season comes to a close, the decorations come down and the regular routines set in. It’s easy to forget that we just celebrated light in the darkness.
Winter is the darkest time of year, with shorter days and in many climates, bitter cold.* Sometimes we enjoy the cozy comforts of home during those days, but others struggle with “the winter blues” or a medical condition called “seasonal affective disorder,” or SAD.
Many are relieved to see the holiday season finally winding down. You might be exhausted, broke, and struggling with the emotions the season brings to the surface. From my perspective as a pastor, I see more and more people dealing with this feeling of encroaching darkness and discouragement.
But what did God say in the very beginning of creation about darkness?
“The earth was formless and empty,” we are told in Genesis 1. “Darkness covered the deep waters.”
Darkness draped the earth leaving an empty, formless void with no life or structure.
How did God deal with the darkness?
When God sees darkness, He is motivated to create light.
The first recorded words from Him in Scripture are “Let there be light.” Let the darkness be vanquished, shattered into oblivion as the light of God brings life and hope to our lives.
“And there was light.”
Creation began with light.
When we enter the darkest times, physically, emotionally, and spiritually, we can pray God’s Words: “Let there be light.”
And there was light, entering our lives as a baby born in a manger, who grew up to be our hope and salvation and to declare, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life” (John 8:12).
As you close the old year, ask Jesus to defeat the darkness in your life. A Jewish proverb says, “A little bit of light pushes away a lot of darkness.”
We have the greatest source of light in all of creation! No one needs to live in the dark. I pray that His light will banish the darkness from your life.
“I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in Me should stay in darkness” (John 12:46, NIV).
*This of course is for the Northern Hemisphere. The Southern Hemisphere’s seasons are reversed, with its own darker days.
