The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
\n \u2014 John 1:5<\/p>\n
I often feel like the world holds its breath on Christmas Eve. For weeks, we\u2019ve listened to advertisements telling us to get ready for the holiday. Perhaps we\u2019ve done our share of bustling about with our own preparations and parties. But now the holiday is upon us, and most of the preparing is done. Candlelight services held in many churches on this evening add to that sense of stillness and wonder.The gospel account of John opens with a sense of quiet stillness and wonder. The eternal God, Creator of heaven and earth, is about to draw near. Is the world ready? The text offers an invitation to all who would receive him and believe: God\u2019s light and life are here. Amid the darkness and confusion that often cloud our everyday living, a true light shines, enabling us to see clearly where life should lead.But there is also a warning. It\u2019s possible to be so busy bustling about that we miss the wonder of Christ\u2019s birth. So it\u2019s absolutely necessary to stop in wonder and amazement in order to hear the message God wants to communicate to us: sinful humanity can again become part of God\u2019s family.As our busy lives quiet down somewhat tonight, let\u2019s remember that God has made everything ready. Christ has come. God\u2019s light is here. Do you see it?<\/p>\n
Word of God, in this quiet moment, let us be still and know that you are the Lord our God, holy and true. Renew in us a sense of wonder that you have come to save us and make us a part of your family. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. \u2014 John 1:5 I often feel like the world holds its breath on Christmas Eve. For weeks, we\u2019ve listened to advertisements telling us to get ready for the holiday. Perhaps we\u2019ve done our share of bustling about with our own preparations and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[709,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-13586","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-devotionals","8":"tag-light","9":"tag-waiting"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}