By Pastor Adam Van Dop

One of my favourite elements of Christmas is the way our house gets decorated.  The decorated tree, the warm fire, the candles flickering, the Christmas music playing softly in the background.  I think my favourite part of all the décor, is the lights.  From the ones on our tree, to the ones on the outside of our house.  It all feels so cozy, you might even say “gezellig” (ask a Dutch friend to help you pronounce that; essentially, it’s the way that the Dutch describe the “best kind of cozy”). In all this décor in our house, Pam made a sign with a line from Lauren Daigle’s hit song, Noel, that gets displayed amongst our decorations for the Christmas season,

“The Light of the world, given for us.”

It’s an amazing song that tells of that amazing first Christmas and the gift of Jesus to us.  The prophet Isaiah, as he was prophesying about the coming Light, writes,

And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground.

Isaiah 42:16 | ESV

Jesus performed many miracles, and one episode seems to capture what Isaiah was seeing.  The Gospel writer, Mark, tells of blind man, who was brought to Jesus by some of his friends.  In a peculiar way, Jesus takes two stages to heal the man.  After the first stage, the man reports still with blurry vision,

“I see men, but they look like trees, walking.”

Mark 8:24 | ESV

Then Jesus completed the healing, the man’s sight was fully restored.  Jesus was making the point here that in one sense He had the ability to heal physical ailments, but in a deeper sense, He was emphasizing that He came to restore people’s spiritual sight.  Mark tells us,

“He saw everything, clearly.”

Mark 8:25 | ESV

As this man began to see clearly who Jesus was, now with the full scope of light hitting the rods and cones of his inner eyes, he was also able to see who Jesus really was, with his heart and soul.  In the book of John, Jesus pronounces,

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

John 8:12 | ESV

Jesus tells us that like this man who was healed, in Him, the Light, we’ll be able to see clearly.  In Matthew Jesus invites us to be extensions of the same as He tells that as He has come into the world as a shining light, we now, like our decorations are to go into this darkened world as shining lights.

“You are the light of the world.”

Matthew 5:14

May you go from this Christmas 2021 season with your hearts full and ready to be Christ’s light for the coming year of 2022!  In these last two years, and now also in the last few challenging months – we’re going to need all the Light we can get!

Every birthday needs a cake to celebrate!

In your ADVENT ACTIVITY BOX you will find everything you need to make and decorate

a birthday cake for Jesus! 

As you make your cake, spend time in conversation talking about how Jesus

might have celebrated his birthday when he was a child.  

The box was made available via pre-registration in November.

Did Mary make him a birthday cake, did he have friends over, would he have received presents?

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Scroll down just a little bit more for the Advent Candle Lighting liturgy,

as this week, it will take place today, on Friday.