Devotion for January 5, 2022, from Pastor Tim Huff of Holy Trinity
We are Lights of God in the World
One of the things many of us find joyful is going to look at the Christmas light displays and decor in our neighborhoods. Many of us will drive several miles just to find a neighborhood with several lit-up houses, so we can slowly drive through while listening to Christmas music.
Some communities have parks filled with decorations and elaborate light displays. They may have a live Santa and reindeer, carolers, or a live Nativity. Endless lines of slow-moving vehicles drive through, oohing and ahhing. Plenty of people park and then walk the area together.
We love to see the lights! It doesn’t matter if they’re all white, all different colors, flashing, or really simple. We crave light when darkness is all around us. It picks up our spirit, gives us joy, and sometimes even makes us laugh.
The people of Scripture waited for the Messiah. They lived in the waiting. Just as simple Christmas lights can light up our spirits on a cold, dark winter night, the Light of the World, Jesus, brings his eternal light to everyone.
No amount of darkness can cover up or extinguish the light of Jesus. Christ shines so we all can see God’s light, hear the Good News and experience the joy of the Messiah’s coming.
“The Word was coming into the world”
John 1:9
We are accustomed to thinking of Jesus as being sent into the world. We know he had a mission. We know why Jesus was here. But what about us? We, too, have been sent into this world! We, too, incarnate the life of God in us.
Everything changes radically from the moment you know yourself as being sent into this world. … The change of which I speak is the change from living life as a painful test to prove that you deserve to be loved, to living as an unceasing “Yes” to the truth of that Belovedness.
(Henri J. M. Nouwen, Life of the Beloved, 105)
Genesis tells the story of the first human being-crafted with care from the clay of the earth, God breathing the divine breath into humankind. Each of us is made with this care, this breath, this purpose, this life of God in us. Each of us is sent to touch this world with God’s love, to incarnate God’s love every day.
As Christ was sent, so we are sent: to reveal God’s love to a hurting world.
As we share the light of Christ in the world I close with this prayer:
God of Light,
At the beginning of this new year, I offer you my life.
Come take my voice, may the words I speak be filled with encouragement and goodness.
Come take my hands, may the work they create be generous and healing.
Come take my feet, may the journeys I walk be led by your Spirit within.
Come take my life Creator, for I love your goodness, your kindness and your leading. Amen.
Pastor Tim
