Jesus is the Light of the World
This year, the St. Martin’s Preschool Advent curriculum began early. Here is an example of how the first lesson started:
I told the students to cover their eyes and asked, “What can you see?” “Nothing! It’s dark!” they exclaimed. “Yes, we cannot see and it’s dark …” I replied and rang the chime. “Can you hear with your eyes covered?” “Yes!” they exclaimed in unison and we uncovered our eyes.
“Who has a nightlight in their bedroom?” I asked. The children raised their hands. “Most of us have one and can remember, or imagine, a time when Mom or Dad forgot to turn on the nightlight (uh oh) and how that felt. Scary? Lonely? Sad? We might imagine scary things around us and we can’t see where anything is. And how do we feel when Mom or Dad arrives and turns on the nightlight? Better! Yes, happy! Safe! We can see, too.”
Then, I asked the students to imagine that they are in the dark and the nightlight is off, but they can hear their mom or dad call out, “I’m coming! Just a minute! I’m coming to turn on the light, honey!”
“God gave the prophet Isaiah a message for His people,” I explained to the kids: ‘The people who have walked in darkness will see a Great Light.’ A Great Light! The people of God were waiting for a Great Light! Who could that be?”
And the children already know who the light is because every week, we light a candle (electric of course!) to help us remember that Jesus is the Light of the World. They intimately know what it feels like to wait anxiously in the dark for the light they hope and trust is coming.
Recently, I had a moment in which I felt that I was in the dark. I could not see the way forward. It echoed the feelings one has of being in a dark room, lonely and anxious. I asked God to show me the way, for Jesus to be the nightlight and to give me wisdom. Yet, sometimes turning to Jesus doesn’t bring immediate answers.
What if, at that moment, the place His light leads me to is simply to trust Him? What if the journey He has planned for me is tailor-made to shape me into that position of trust amid the unknown? Even though I may feel like I have gotten nowhere with my problem when I return to the position of trust in Christ, I arrive at the destination He wants for me. That is the place He led me to in the moment.
In new places, new challenges and new moments in time, God calls us to trust Him without knowing all the details and His light reminds us that He is always with us. He knows the way.
