Arise, shine, for your light has come

January darkness – it was bleak, wasn’t it?

I reflected on darkness and light at Christmas, as I’m sure many of us did – the period when we remember the true Light, who came down, and cast the darkness away.1 It is this truth that makes my heart sing during Advent, when we’re waiting, and we’re singing carols, anticipating Christmas Day.

…the rising sun will come to us from heaven
to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.

Luke 1:78b-79 NIV

These are the words of Zechariah as he is singing to the Lord, praising for the birth of his longed-for son, John, to prepare the way for ‘the rising sun’. His words are a wonderful prophecy, sung in advance of the Bethlehem birth, and they remind us why the sun had to rise – because the people (you and I) were living in darkness. January darkness, but the eternal kind. A darkness that eats us from the inside, leaving gaping holes that we stuff with the world and that eventually destroy us.

But what a stunning image Zechariah gives us of the Son (of God), who literally did rise to shed eternal light on all humanity, on all of us who live in that dark shadow of death.2 For those who have seen the Light, the darkness has power no more.

Fresh from the joy of Christmas we enter a new year, and the darkness is always so dark. For me, the path has been unclear – sunlight has been scarce.

But I read this:

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.

Isaiah 60:1-3 NIV

Knowing what I know now about Christ and his manger and his cross, this is mind-blowing. That Zechariah could have echoed these words, and seen the dawn of this same shining light hundreds of years after Isaiah concieved of it is almost incomprehensible. Only by noticing similar Christ-flavoured threads throughout the entirety of Scripture do we begin to understand the sheer vastness and incredible sovereignty of the God we speak of and who, himself, came to earth to be that shining light, in the form of a child.

So Zechariah echoes Isaiah, but Isaiah gives us more:

The sun will no more be your light by day,
    nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you,
for the Lord will be your everlasting light,
    and your God will be your glory.
Your sun will never set again,
    and your moon will wane no more;
the Lord will be your everlasting light,
    and your days of sorrow will end.

Isaiah 60:19-20 NIV

In Genesis, the Lord creates the sun to ‘govern’ the day (1:16). It’s there, and it provides us light and (sometimes) warmth. But ‘light’ has actually existed since verse 3. The sun and moon come much later, an embellishment to day and night. The Lord is graciously good in providing us warmth and light, and a comforting glow at night. But the sun sets. Often beautifully, of course – but the warmth and light disappears, nonetheless. And we rarely see the moon in full, if at all. They are finite, created things, just as we are.

The Lord, our Creator, is our everlasting Light. No more shall the sun set on us, and no more shall the moon fade, because Christ is the rising sun. If you know Christ, and you love him, your darkness inside has been flooded by Light. The valley is dark, but it cannot consume you. The pain is snarling and viscious, but it cannot touch your everlasting Light – the risen, glorious Christ. Your days of sorrow came to an end when he denied death and you grasped his outstretched hand. He will not let you go.

I can rest in these simple truths from Isaiah and Luke, not just at Advent, but all year round. I pray you can do the same. And I urge you to reach out to the risen Son in the midst of your darkness. He will guide your feet and be your glory, always – the One who lifts your head high.

  1. Words from a beautiful song by Josh Garrels. I talk a bit more about it here. ↩︎
  2. I tagged along to the recording of a Christmas message on these same verses, so they have extra personal significance – we were up a (large) hill at 7am in December, listening to Mark’s powerful words and witnessing the most beautiful sunrise. A memory I won’t forget! ↩︎