Making Room to Let the Light In

I moved house earlier in the year and when I came to put up my Christmas tree up, I realised that I didn’t have enough room. I could have chosen not to erect the tree but for me this is a way of welcoming Jesus into my life at Christmas, so I chose to move some furniture around to make room for the tree.

In the Bible is tells us that Jesus is the Light of the World.

Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.” John 8:12

When there is no light we stumble and fall. When we are in a dark place, we cannot see a way forward. We make mistakes when we do not have the light to help us to see where we are going.

It could be said that I was making room for the Christmas tree in order to let the light in.

We choose whether we want to welcome the light into our lives or remain in darkness.

When we follow Jesus, the true Light, we can avoid walking blindly and falling into sin. He lights the path ahead of us so we can see how to live. He removes the darkness of sin from our lives. If we let Christ guide our lives we will never need to stumble in darkness.

I think sometimes when we go through difficult experiences it can feel like everything is dark. A bit like walking through treacle. Everything feels like an effort, nothing feels easy and we have no hope.

The Bible tells us that the Lord can turn our darkness into light.

You are my lamp, O Lord; the Lord turns my darkness into light. 2 Samuel 22:29

When I find myself in a dark place, I make a decision to take action. I choose to take a walk of faith and more often than not my perspective changes. I stop focussing on my problems and instead focus on God who is the light of the world and who can turn my darkness into light. This of course takes belief and faith.

If you feel that you believe but also have doubts there is a helpful verse in the Bible

“I believe; help my unbelief.” Mark 9:24

Our faith comes from God and it is His work in our lives that enables us to believe and obey. By saying a prayer asking God to help with our unbelief it is actually a statement of faith and an admission that our faith is far from perfect and that we know that God can help us with this.

So, when we are in a dark place, we can take a walk of faith, we can say a prayer asking God to increase our faith and focus on God rather than our problems.

Today we watched the film called ‘Elf’ and I was inspired by the part where Santa Clauses’ sleigh was falling from the sky. The reason Santa’s sleigh was falling was because it could not survive without the peoples Christmas spirit. In the next part of the story, they set out to help the people find their Christmas spirit. One by one the people dug deep in their hearts and they started to sing. As the people sang Santa’s sleigh soared into the sky and because there was so much Christmas spirit the sleigh flew all the way to the top of the Empire State Building!

Sometimes we have to dig down deep in our souls to find a tiny bit of faith to help us believe that things will get better. The light of Jesus will come in if we take a step of faith and just believe that He came to help us.

Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.” Matthew 17:20

There is a great song about Jesus being our light. It is called ‘Light of the World’ by Tim Hughes

Light of the world
You stepped down into darkness
Opened my eyes, Let me see
Beauty that made this heart adore you
Hope of a life spent with you

Here I am to worship
Here I am to bow down
Here I am to say that you’re my God
You’re altogether lovely
Altogether worthy
Altogether wonderful to me

King of all days
So highly exalted
Glorious in heaven above
Humbly you came to the earth you created
All for love’s sake became poor

Here I am to worship
Here I am to bow down
Here I am to say that you’re my God
You’re altogether lovely
Altogether worthy
Altogether wonderful to me

I’ll never know how much it cost
To see my sin upon that cross

Here I am to worship
Here I am to bow down
Here I am to say that you’re my God
You’re altogether lovely
Altogether worthy
Altogether wonderful to me

Maybe you could look it up and if you feel in a dark place like I do sometimes you could listen to it and hopefully be encouraged as you let the light of Jesus in.

Happy Christmas and may you have many blessings in 2021!