My bride and I drove through a portion of Fort Worth filled with older homes that have been restored and are now decorated for Christmas. The lights and colors in the gathering dark exude welcome and wonder. 

Neighbors decorate their homes stylishly and lavishly. Our friend next door paid a company to decorate her home. It is lovely. Then there is our house. The outside is unadorned. The roof is too steep and I am too uncreative to artistically arrange the lights my bride purchased so unwisely. 

Inside, our tree remains in its box in the garage. We await a handyman’s arrival this afternoon to finish a project and make things ready for our faux evergreen, its adornments, and lights. 

Christmas lights delight our eyes. They attract attention with their beauty. They point beyond themselves to that Day of perfect illumination. 

We live in the light of a New Day. We anticipate an even more brilliant hereafter. 

To those in exile, to those who had turned their hearts back to God, to those who longed for home, God spoke words of comfort, hope, and everlasting light. 

Consider how light plays its part in the coming of Jesus. There is the blinding light of an angelic choir singing to shepherds on what had been a dark hillside. There was a star of such brilliance wise men from afar followed it all the way to the one born King of the Jews. 

However dark is your world, however dark are your thoughts, Christmas reminds us how the Light of the World pierces all darkness. The Light of the World cannot be extinguished. The Light of the World is evidence eternity has stepped into time and draws all of us toward the eternal brightness that is our future. 

How warm and wonderful are God’s words through Isaiah: