On the last day of the year, we celebrated together the end of 2017 and the anticipation of the new year. As we “meditate on endings and beginnings, we watch and keep vigil for the coming of God’s justice”. Our scripture lessons for the service reminded us of the light that Jesus’s birth brings to humankind. In Isaiah 9 we hear, “People who walk in the darkness have seen a great light and on them, a light has shined”. John 1:1-14 gives us the familiar, “What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it”.
Throughout this Christmas season, we have celebrated the light…the light from the star of Bethlehem, the light around the angel who brought the wondrous news to Mary, the holy halo over the newborn King, and the realization that “true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world” (John 1:9).
As you begin the new year, consider how you can bring the light into someone’s darkness; how you, like the man sent from God named John, can testify to the light.