When my son, Nathan, was a kid he had a watch with a dial that would glow in the dark. The only problem was that it never seemed to be dark enough to see it glow.

One day, all the kids were playing in our basement, which is like a cave – it’s PITCH DARK. No light gets down there. I’m always impressed with how absolutely dark it is down there. Suddenly, Nathan came running up the stairs. “Mom! You gotta see this!”

I went downstairs and he held up his wrist with a big smile on his face. I could see his face so clearly I almost asked who had turned on a flashlight, but then I realized it was his watch. It was glowing so brightly you could read a book by it! It was amazing how bright that light was shining.

That’s the way light is. The darker the darkness gets, the brighter the light becomes. 

It was a dark time when Mary and Joseph began their trek to Bethlehem. They were living in a land occupied by a foreign power, a power which demanded that they undertake a dangerous journey to register their presence in the empire. It was a dark time as well, when Mary and Joseph were visited by wise men and the anger of a jealous king would force them to leave their country to find safety as refugees in another land. 

This has been a dark time for our world as well. A death-dealing pandemic. Destruction in the wake of wildfires, typhoons, and hurricanes. Protests and riots and civil unrest. As I have reflected on 2020, so often the darkness has seemed inescapable. 

And yet, the darker the darkness gets, the brighter the light becomes. 

Mary and Joseph were resilient in the face of the darkness that surrounded them. They continued to follow, faithfully trusting that even in the darkness, God’s light would guide them.

At WME, we are grateful for your resilience as well, and we join you in trusting that even in the darkness God’s light will guide us. 

As we celebrate the birth of Christ, we are confident that the darker the darkness gets, the brighter the light becomes. In that spirit of confidence, we pray that together, our lives and work will point the world to the One True Light. A light the darkness can never extinguish.

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

John 1.1-5