Light Up the Valleys

I love Christmas lights. We were driving my son to a winter formal at a golf course down some rural roads and rounded a corner to find a house ablaze in lights (like National Lampoons Christmas). Almost every square inch of the house was lit, even the yard, and the lights flashed to Christmas music where you could dial into a radio station to listen along. On the way, we hadn’t passed a car in miles, but vehicles littered the street in front of the Christmas lights house.

There is something alluring about light. Sit by a campfire, and you’ll find people tend to stare into the fire, hatched baby turtles crawl towards the light, and even bugs are drawn to it. Jesus said in John 8:12, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” God sent His son into the darkness of this world to be the light.

I was doom scrolling on Instagram and came across a video of a girl who was standing at the base of a wind turbine, pretending to jump over the shadows as they passed. She had a rhythm going and then as a shadow of the blade passed over, she jerked back, as if hit, and pantomimed a very realistic imitation of being felled by the turbine blade. The video reminded me of something I heard a pastor say about a verse in Psalm 23, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou are with me; Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” Jesus took on death’s full blow so that we only have to walk through death’s shadow. And if that’s not amazing enough, the Psalm states God will be with us, so we don’t have to fear.

God doesn’t always take away our problems, but He guides us through them. His Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path (Psalm 119:105). The spirit of Christmas is a sense of joy, peace, and hope because God sent His Son, Immanuel—God with us. He came in the humble form of a baby lying in a manager, and even though He was God, He chose to experience being cold, hungry, and tired. He loves us so much He died so that we don’t ever have to be separated from Him.

Christmas is merry and bright because of Jesus’s brilliant glory and saving power. He came to rescue, redeem, and reconcile us. We no longer need to fear the shadow of death because Jesus lights up our valleys.

In Jesus, we place our hope because light is life.

“Because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.” Luke 1:78-79