By Michael Brooks
Special to the Selma Times-Journal

Christmas has been called the season of lights as beautiful luminaries adorn our neighborhoods. This is akin to one of the essential meanings of Christmas.

The ancient prophet Isaiah looked down the corridors of time and announced the coming messiah would bring light to our dark world: “The people that walk in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined” (Isaiah 9:2). And the apostle John announced the coming of Jesus with a similar word: “And the light shineth in darkness” (John 1: 5).

Jesus came to shine a light on God.

In the days of the Old Testament God was a mysterious being. The prophets described him to the best of their ability but the people didn’t seem to understand.

Modern theologians yet try to explain God as “the ground of all being” and “the unmoved mover.”

Jesus, however, popularized another term for God: “father.” He taught us to pray to “our father.” It’s been suggested this term may not communicate to those who have suffered abuse at home, but Jesus’ designation means that God is the ideal father. He’s a father whose heart grieves when we rebel, and who runs to welcome us when we come home (Luke 15).

Jesus came to shine a light on how we should live.

God is good to provide many models of Christian conduct. I remember with appreciation the Sunday School teachers, youth leaders and staff ministers who influenced me in early years, but the greatest model we have for conduct is Jesus. Charles Sheldon developed a series of sermons on the theme, “What would Jesus do?” and published them as a book, “In His Steps,” in 1896. In the 1990s Sheldon’s question was popularized once again when many young people began to wear the WWJD bracelets.

This phrase is more than a bracelet; it’s the root of what it means to be a Christian. As John wrote, “walk as he walked” (1 John 2:6).

And Jesus came to shine a light on death.

Isaiah’s term, “the shadow of death,” reminds us of David’s use of the phrase in Psalm 23.

A member of our church told me that her late husband, a pastor, often reminded his congregation they were only “one heartbeat or one step” away from death. The possibility of death is always near, so we know the truth of what Isaiah and David spoke.

This makes foolish the idea that we can wait until the day before death to prepare to meet God. For most of us this day is unknown. That’s why is makes sense to turn from sin and to Christ today.