“For unto us a Child is born…Isaiah 9:6

The December mornings are dark now when I get up. On grey days like we’ve had recently, the pine forest outside my windows seems sketched in charcoal.   Color and light have been smudged out as if they don’t  belong in winter.  I long for color and light and warmth of the sun.

Then I remember that this is the physical season of darkness and waiting in our northern hemisphere. For another week or so  earth will move even farther away from the sun, until the daylight is shortest, until night seems  endless.  We  eagerly,  and not so patiently  wait for the solar fulcrum to tip  earth   back towards the sun in it yearly revolution just as the Creator has ordained.

It is the season of Advent in the liturgical church. As a child I was awestruck by the massive, fragrant  evergreen Advent wreaths  hanging by bright red ribbons in church and the lighting of tall, elegant  beeswax  candles  each week of Advent as a reminder that “we were people  waiting in darkness for whom a great light was coming.” Closing my eyes I c still  recall the Advent  smell of fresh greenery  and melting candle wax.

The  Advent wreath was also  German tradition in our home.  For three  Sundays my mother lit  one  of the three red candles  nestled  in the wreath. Finally on the Sunday before the 25th, the last white candle was lighted and we children  knew that the time of waiting was ended.  Weihnachten was very near. Christmas was  all about awaiting the Christ child to be born.

I knew nothing of Isaiah or  prophecies at the time, but his beautiful words foretelling the birth of the Messiah  inspired countless  artists for centuries and their art inspired me.   I’ve  visited many museums graced with  nativity paintings based on  Luke ‘s account in the Bible . Pondering  the mystery of Christ’s Incarnation never fails  to stir  my heart to soar and wonder. Today the advent of our  Immanuel is   boxed up   as Christmas cards for us  to send off  dutifully to family and friends.   Sadly, it’s a sign of our times that it’s now much easier to find “Christmas” images  that tout  Santa Claus and “holly, jolly holidays greetings ” than it is to find art work  celebrating the  Lord’s birth. A Google search yields thousands more secular holiday   images  than Biblical  ones. The old masters  like Raphael, Botticelli and Michelangelo would be dumbfounded by 21st  century Christmas art.

We, too,  are a people “who walked in darkness and have seen a great light.” We are reborn out of the darkness  of our own sin into the saving light of a Son who  is infinitely more life giving to our eternal spirits than any celestial body can be  to our physical existence. The prophet tells us that “unto us” this Child is born. He is one of us and among us. Isaiah  foretold Him in another prophecy as Immanuel, as “God with us”, God who would  be with Israel forever and who in Jesus Messiah never leaves us nor abandons  us.

The amazing juxtaposition to Isaiah’s vision of Israel’s  Messiah being born as a child is that Jesus, the fulfilled Messiah  later tells us we cannot enter His kingdom unless we are reborn, unless we come as little children. He is the one through whom believers would be reborn because He was born unto us first,   the Incarnate God described by John:

“In Him was the life and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. ”  John 1:4-5

There seems  to be limitless  darkness, gloom and oppression on earth,  greater  today than  at any other time in history.  Yet the promise is still the same. Despite the gloom, for those   who dwell in the land of the shadow of death, “upon them a light has shined.”  Immanuel  has come. Isaiah speaks to the future of the Messiah’s coming and kingdom, but as if it has already taken place. Likewise we await Jesus again and our eternal destinies,  but live our lives according to the promises Jesus has already fulfilled for us. We live in Christ  because of His Light already come  despite the growing darkness oppressing  earth.

Thus , we sing joyfully  like the angels on high because we know  Isaiah’s prophecy was foretold and is fulfilled:

“O come, O come, Immanuel. And ransom captive Israel, That mourns in lonely exile here,  Until the Son of God appear.                                                                                         Rejoice, Rejoice.  Immanuel  shall come to thee, O Israel.

EAG