Light in the Darkness

“The sun shall no longer be your light by day, Nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you; But the Lord will be to you an everlasting light, And your God your glory. Your sun shall no longer go down, Nor shall your moon withdraw itself; For the Lord will be your everlasting light, And the days of your mourning shall be ended.” (Isaiah 60:19-20, New King James Version)

This picture is of the moon about to set early one winter morning in March. Sometimes we watch the moon come up in the eastern sky, but I don’t remember ever seeing the moon this bright as it was sinking in the west. I wanted to write something about the first Christmas today, but nothing came to mind, except this picture of the moon.

The Old Testament book of Isaiah is filled with prophecy, some pretty obvious (such as Isaiah 7:14 – “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”), but many more are quite obscure.

The verses above, for me, seem like the obvious kinds. God is sending a Savior, One brighter than the sun or the moon, One who will never dip beyond the horizon to leave us in darkness. A Savior who will be the Light of the world, who will last forever.

And it all began when Jesus was born on that dark night in Bethlehem.