The Light Shines!

John 1:5 (ESV)

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

I know that this is only my second January in Germany, but I have to tell you – this is the hardest time of the year for me.  Why?  Because of the darkness.   Right now the sun goes down around 4pm and doesn’t come up again until after 8am.  The daylight hours are short, cloudy and rainy.  I can’t even imagine how people that live further north deal with daylight hours that are even shorter.  I now have a greater appreciation for people who suffer with SAD – Seasonal Affective Disorder.  This is a depression that comes on from lack of sunshine.  Don’t get me wrong – I am not depressed but I do miss the sunshine.  IN the mornings, it’s so dark that some mornings I have trouble forcing myself out of bed..  At times the physical darkness is oppressive.

That’s also true spiritually.  The darkness of sin is just as oppressive, really more so.  I saw it today in the sadness of a woman who just laid her husband’s ashes to rest in the cemetery.  I read it in the pleas for prayer from a woman whose husband just got home after a month in the hospital.  Last night he had to turn right around and go back to ICU because of multiple blood clots.  I have witnessed it in spouse after spouse standing in my office devastated because their husband or wife wants out of their marriage.  We have all experienced it in sinful habits we hate and yet continue.  Guilt, worry, fear, grief, discouragement, depression, sadness – all are words that describe the power of the darkness.  The darkness of sin is oppressive.

There is one thing that sustains me in January.  The days are getting longer… a little bit each day.  Spring and Summer are coming.  Come June the sun will be shining at 5am and won’t go down till after 10pm.  The cafés of Frankfurt will set up tables outside.  New flowers will grow.  Trees will leaf out..  The weather will get warmer.  Germany’s beautiful Spring and Summer will once again come.  I can’t wait.  There is no doubt.  The sun will shine.  The darkness will recede.  How do I know?  Because it happens every year… because it is already happening right now.  Every day, minute by minute the days are already getting longer. 

That’s what Epiphany does for us.  Epiphany means to make manifest  January 6, the day of Epiphany is the day we celebrate the visit of the Magi – the men from the East who followed the light of the Savior’s Star.  Epiphany holds out the promise of light and hope, peace and forgiveness, new life now and forever.  Epiphany says “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you.   That light – the true light that gives light to everyman… the true light who forgives all our sins… the light that conquered death and rose again- that light is Jesus Christ.  He “shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Last year I messaged a friend who lives in Alaska to ask him how to deal with the darkness.  He said, “Get outside in the light as much as possible.”  What great advice!  How do you deal with the darkness of sin, of grief, worry and fear?  Spend as much time as you can in light of Jesus.  Confess your sins… pray to Him… read his word.  For “if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. “  A Blessed Epiphany to all of you!