Light

"And then the child grew and the word spread. He was different. So much like us, yet so different from us. We have both light and darkness threaded into our hearts. We can see both dawn and dusk in our souls, but He was light with no shadow, illumination with no night. "

The story of the birth of Jesus is, in and of itself, a miracle but the symbolism that is locked inside the story is also really cool to me. I was raised hearing the story of Jesus’ birth but, until I actually became ‘saved’, I never saw all the threads that God wove into the life of Jesus.

There’s the fact that He would end His life slaughtered for our sins – the sacrificial lamb, if you will. Once you understand that, the fact that He was born in a manger surrounded by other barnyard animals seems apropos somehow. People who do not understand the concept of Jesus spilling out His blood four our sins would probably hear this story of His birth and think it implausible or ridiculous that God would come to earth and spend His first hours of life in a barn but, in reality, his entire life was played out among a field of wolves just like in real life.

But His life also reminds me of the saying “A wolf in sheep’s clothing” because He spent the years of His ministry exposing the Pharisees and Sadducees for who they really were. There was Jesus, standing like a sheep amidst a field of wolves…all of them salivating to get a piece of the young lamb and to be the one to bring Him down.

It also seems amazing to me that He would be born and placed inside a wooden manger, grow up to work as a carpenter, then die hanging from a wooden cross. As a child, He was helpless in his surroundings. As a young man working with His father, Joseph, he learned to take control of the wood by forming it into useful things. (He “mastered” the wood, so to speak.) Then, at the end of His life, there He is again – helpless as they nail Him to the wooden cross.

Our author, Steven James, uses the analogy of Jesus being the “light of the world” and I have to admit, that is one of my favorites. We, as humans, are both light and dark in this world. We do some good and we do some evil. We leave the world both a brighter and darker place for our having been here. Not so with Jesus. He was born with a pinpoint of light – the Northern Star – guiding the wise men to his birthplace. He died with the light of day closing down around everyone as they hurried off to get home before Passover began. But then, there it is…the dawn of Easter morning and as the sun unleashes it’s full bath of brilliance on the world, Jesus steps out and stands below it, emanating a light all His own.

Stable occupant…to wolf hunter…to sacrificial lamb.

Wooden manger…to woodworker…to wooden cross.

Light…to dark…and back to light again.

"Daddy, will you smile at me?" the children of Israel asked.
"Yeah," said God, climbing into a manger.

Beautiful...