GLORY!

Our church had its Carol Services last Sunday evening—a service made up Scripture readings, songs of celebration, and a sermon. A wonderful time of meditating upon the significance of the season. (I hadn’t experienced many of these services since my days in India decades ago, so this was especially enjoyable, a Christmas tradition I was returning to!)

Up in the front of the church was a delightful nativity scene that caught my attention with the fascinating plays of brightness and shadow upon the silhouettes of those in the manger. Chiaroscuro, the scintillating artistic dialogue between contrasting light and darkness. And quite appropriate, I thought, for the Scriptures declared, almost seven centuries before Jesus Christ, …

Arise, shine,
for your light has come,
And the glory of the LORD
has risen upon you.
For behold,
darkness will cover the earth
And deep darkness the peoples;
But the LORD will rise upon you
And His glory
will appear upon you.
Isaiah 60:1–2

The plays of light and darkness. Only, in this case, the Light completely trumped darkness. It was the victory of the chiaro (brightness) over the oscuro (darkness). Glory overwhelmed evil.

I will make darkness into light ….
Isaiah 42:16

And it did happen. Two thousand years ago. God became man. Eternity intersected temporality. Immanuel. God with us. He has come! To us, the ones enshrouded in “deep darkness”, the ones enervated by the wickedness of the world, our own sinful flesh, and the wiles of Satan. He has come to the ones entrapped in sin, to the ones entombed in death.

The people who walk in darkness
Will see a great light;
Those who live in a dark land,
The light will shine on them.
Isaiah 9:2

The Light of the world. The glory of God has appeared in the form of the God-man Christ Jesus, He whose robe is the light.

And the Word became flesh,
and dwelt among us,
and we saw His glory,
glory as of the only begotten
from the Father,
full of grace and truth.
John 1:14

On that silent night, that holy night, the Son of God, love’s pure light, indeed, became man. The glory of God shone as radiant beams from His holy face, and there dawned that day the new morn of redeeming grace. Christ the Savior is born. He has come. Light has been crowned!

Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings,
Risen with healing in His wings.
Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!”
Charles Wesley, 1739

No wonder the Nicene creed declared in 325 A.D. that Jesus Christ was the “Light of Light, very God of very God”, manifesting the fullness, essence, and glory of deity. Shadows dispelled. Glory triumphant!

“I am the Light of the world;
the one who follows Me
will not walk in the darkness,
but will have the Light of life.”
John 8:12

Rejoice! The glory of the LORD has been revealed in the incarnation. And soon it will be revealed in all its magnificence at the Second Advent of Christ.

… the glory of the LORD
will be revealed,
And all flesh will see it together;
For the mouth of the LORD
has spoken.
Isaiah 40:5

And on that day and thenceforth …

… you will have the LORD
for an everlasting light,
And your God for your glory.
… and the days of your mourning
will be over.
Isaiah 60:19–20

Rejoice! The end has begun!