Light in the Dark
"In your light do we see light" (Ps. 36:9). Advent is all about light. We light candles. We welcome Jesus, the Light of the World. Jesus, the Light that shines in dark places.
Can we talk about those dark places for a moment? Where does your mind go to when you think of dark places? For many it may go immediately to things like immorality or licentiousness; the "biggies" we associate with sinful lifestyles and the guilt of sin. Or, maybe you think about the darkness that comes from the pollution of sin: sickness, disease, death, depression, etc... Both the guilt of sin as well as it's pollution certainly represent the darkness that the Light comes to illuminate.
In addition, there exists another darkness that Advent invites us to open to the light. I'll call it the "crowded darkness". This is the darkness that Jesus warns about in Luke 21:34, when he says, “But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation (carousing) and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap" (emphasis mine). We expect the darkness of something like drunkenness, but cares of this life?
Jesus' warning reminds us that Satan is just as happy to see us mindlessly paying bills, pursuing our education or careers, going to the gym, watching Netflix, following the NBA or scheduling playdates as he is seeing us traipse to the bar every night. In fact, some might argue that "the cares of this life" might be a better trap than carousing or drunkenness because it provides fewer occasions to consider the outcome of our way of life. The seemingly innocuous activities simply (yet effectively) crowd our lives in such a way that the light does not penetrate.
C.S. Lewis captures this notion of crowded darkness well through the words of his fictional demon, Screwtape: “It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds. In reality, our best work is done by keeping things out.” He goes on to describe the road to hell as a gradual one, "the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts."
This is why Advent is important. A light in the darkness is a light that can penetrate the crowded spaces. Advent breaks into our monotonous rhythms with a clarity that sparkles. "In your light do we see light." It is a light that all can see by: licentious or lazy, drunk or driven, physically sick or spiritually self-righteous; Jesus is the one that has come to dispel the darkness.
Photo by Darran Shen on Unsplash