True Light

At the time ⌚ that I write this and being winter ❄️🥶, you may well be starting your day, going to work ⚒️ while it is light 🔆 and before you know it, you finish when it is dark 🌑 - to quote from Captain Jack Sparrow 🏴‍☠️🥃 'Why is the [light] always gone?!'

While spoken figuratively, it is true what Christ said that we ought to walk while it is light because we don't know where we are going when it is dark (John 12:35) and that makes perfect logical sense. Its why even with camping ⛺ that it's always good to have a 🔦 handy, which now becomes even easier with a 🔦 on our phones. However that only provides help to what we see with our natural eyes 👀 and not with our spiritual eyes.....

For those familiar with the Spiderwick Chronicles, there becomes an instant in the film where the siblings need to fight off fantasy creatures. The problem was that they couldn't see 👀 them and so they didn't stand a chance until a friendly creature spat into the eyes of one of the twins to give the 'gift of sight'. Appropriate considering December is the Gift of Sight month 😎✌️ encouraging us to take care of our natural eyes, but our spiritual eyes are important too. Particularly to look beyond our 'flesh and blood' (Eph 6:12) to who/what is pulling the strings, like the older sister thinking her brother did something but it was the creature that she couldn't see. This is what the Scripture means to walk in the light lest that in the darkness gets away with it, in a manner of speaking 🤷‍♂️ and this was said by Jesus: the truth (Jhn 14:6)

Thankfully we do not require spit to see, but I imagine Spiderwick was inspired by Scripture when Jesus ✝️ miraculously restored sight to a blind man when he spat into the ground, made clay and used clay against his eyes and could see for the first time in his life after washing it off (Jhn 9:6-7). At first instance 🤔 it would seem strange why Jesus acted in this way, but it only confirmed that he was of God because God had made man out of dust in the beginning (Gen 2:7) where dust in Hebrew means clay & both the Bible and scientists agree that clay was part of our creation process.

The most wondrous part of this event however, is that like in creation, Jesus identified Himself as light first (Jhn 9:5) just as God created light first (Gen 1:3) 💡🙌🏻 and it makes perfect logical sense ⚙️ again when Jesus says how He can't work if it's dark (Jhn 9:4). It applies both figuratively and literally because we cannot see what is ahead in the here and now, likewise we cannot see what is ahead in the future 🤷‍♂️. Sometimes we may refer to horoscopes or 'Mystic Meg' but for me, none can compare to the omniscience 🧠 of God to know what's ahead because while we are finite beings bound on time ⌚, God exists outside of time in eternity - so He knows 👌

Consider even your Sat Nav or your Tom Tom 🗺️ giving you directions to a place you want to go ⬅️⬆️➡️ but you don't know how to get there. You've never been there and yet this technological device knows, being made 'human' by the audio voice 🔉 and like humans, the irony is when it leads you to dead-ends and thus making a mistake as humans do and yet - we listen to it 🤔👂

Even for the Jews, the Apostle Paul emphasised the point that they had the scriptures (Rom 3:1-2) and yet despite having them, they still were unprepared when Jesus came ✝️ and let alone when He taught and preached to them and performed all the signs and miracles that came before Him. Even the miraculous event of restoring the blind man's sight, the religious leaders were too self righteous to rejoice that the man could see and too bothered in the politics of what Jesus could do 👎 More interested in  who He is than what He did, making the event ironic for while the man was physically blind, these leaders were blind to the miracle that had just taken place.

Jesus said 'I am the light of the world' and in this instant, the light was shining 🔆 but spent their time hating Jesus, pointing fingers and remaining in darkness (Jhn 3:19-20) and this is but one response. The other, the Bible says is confusion (Jhn 1:5) to even understand the light, or believe (Jhn 12:46) and let Him guide our understanding in the same way our Sat Nav would guide our course 👍

Zachariah, the father of John the Baptist received a visit from an angel 👼 a messenger of light 🔆 to guide his course and he responded with confusion to close the door 🚪. Him being a priest, while the same Chapter has the Virgin Mary receive a similar visit but she remained open 🔓 and she was blessed as a result, 'blessed among women' (Lk 1:42) and an integral part of the Nativity Story 🌟

Though these were but 2 visitations, there were a total of 6 visitations that felt appropriate for the 6th Day of Christmas:

- the angel guiding the shepherds 🐑 to Bethlehem to see the Saviour (Lk 2:10)

- the angel guiding Joseph to marry 💍Mary to a child that was not his (Matt 1:20)

-the angel guiding Joseph to Egypt to save Jesus from 😈 Herod (Matt 2:13)

- the angel guiding Joseph back to Israel after Herod's death 💀 (Matt 2:19-20)

Tracking these visitations reveals 🔍 that the Nativity Story is also one of obedience and of faith. Where God delivered 📦 on His promise and even where things looked bleak and dangerous 😬, God did not just leave them to it and we can take comfort in that 😊🙏🏻 even inspired by that....

He is, as John records, the 'true Light' 🔆 and for the season we celebrate, we see nothing but lights 😜 with all of the outdoor decorations if not on the Christmas tree 🎄 and yet all symbolic to the real meaning/deal ✌️ on who not what we ought to awe....

#JesustheReason4theSeason