Tuesday, December 2, 2014
Isaiah 60:1-3 Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
JESUS, THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD (2)
Advent is a time of waiting, and waiting is something we are used to doing. A child waits for his next birthday. A teenager waits for a first car. A young man and woman wait for their wedding day. We all wait for something.
But waiting can also be very wearying, especially when the waiting is done in the darkness. Pacing the halls of a hospital waiting for a loved one to come out of surgery is mentally exhausting. Waiting for a phone call about a new job--or waiting to hear whether or not you've been laid off your present job--that's a hard wait. Waiting to see if the money will last until the end of the month. Waiting to find out what the test results will show from your last visit to the doctor. Waiting through the night times of life can be a long, grueling experience. Sometimes we feel as though the light will never dawn. Sometimes we begin to doubt that the wait will ever end. What sustains us through such a time of waiting?
The same thing that sustained the Old Testament believers during their dark days of waiting for the Savior also sustains us as we wait for His deliverance. It is the knowledge and the trust that our wait is not hopeless.
The prophet Isaiah helps us to peer through the darkness, the thick darkness that covers us and he shouts, "But the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you." Isaiah looks through that gloom and he sees Jesus Christ rising. He sees the manger in Bethlehem. He sees the midnight silence being broken by the chorus of heavenly angels. He sees the Light of the World, and he sees the nations flocking to that Light--basking in the glow of forgiveness and peace from heaven. We look through the dimness with Isaiah and we see our help rising too. Come, Lord Jesus, and bring light to our darkness and hope to our days!
