For this is what the Lord has commanded us: “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”

Devotion based on Acts 13:47

Are your Christmas lights still up? Many turn them off in the few days after Christmas. For others, their tradition is to leave them up until the New Year begins or until the Festival of Epiphany. But now we are past New Year’s and the Festival of Epiphany. If I drove around my community, I’m guessing I’d find a few homes still lit up, but not many.

On Christmas night, the brilliant light of the glory of the Lord appeared over Bethlehem, as angels announced the birth of the Savior to lowly shepherds. But only a few saw the light that night, and it was gone almost as quickly as it appeared.

Later, the Magi followed a star in the sky to find the child and worship him. But they may have been the only ones who noticed that unique messenger star that served as their GPS.

But the light that appeared to Jewish shepherds and the light that led non-Jewish or Gentile Magi to Jesus illustrates a truth predicted by prophets centuries earlier. The Messiah—the Savior the Lord promised to send—would be a light for all people.

Outdoor Christmas lights may be especially enjoyed because they light up homes and streets when the days are short and the nights are long in the northern hemisphere.

Without the Messiah, we live in spiritual darkness. We know there is a God out there, but we can’t see him on our own. And so, we foolishly make up our own paths out of the darkness. Prideful paths that are paved with our own best efforts and that define right and wrong by how it feels. Those dark ways of our own making will only lead to one deadly dead-end after another.

But Jesus came into the world to be light. The light that reveals the perfection God requires of us. But, also, the light that lives out that perfection in our place and destroys sin’s darkness as it does. Jesus is the light we need because he is the path out of this world’s darkness into heaven’s eternal light that will never go out.

Prayer: