Tonight in our Little Big Church service, we looked again at the subject of light. We did science experiments involving prisms, shining light on them to reveal the different colours of the rainbow, and shining a torch on a glass of water to show how refraction makes the arrows behind the glass appear to reverse direction! We talked about different sources of light, including the sun, moon and stars and animals which light up like jellyfish and glow worms.
In the Bible, we are told that Jesus is the Light of the world (John 8:12), another one of the ‘I am’ statements in John’s Gospel that indicates the deity of Jesus (since God is light – 1 John 1:5). Those who follow Jesus have the light of life and indeed Jesus says that we are now the light of the world too. (Matt 5:14) Jesus’s light in us shines in us and through us. It’s not a temporary light, like the lights we see when we have firework displays. They are spectacular, bright and dazzling, but they don’t last long! We are more like street lights, standing firm and strong, shining consistently.
Christmas is a time when we think a lot about lights and use lights a lot more than usual: Christmas tree lights, lights in our windows, Advent candles and so on. As we enter the season of Advent, let’s continue to shine brightly, for when we follow Jesus, the Light of the world, we don’t have to be afraid of darkness, for He gives us the light of life.