(Post by: Scott Hobbs) Blogmas Day Twenty-Three 2024
What will we choose for Christmas? Do we want to focus on the Light or will the darkness shift our attention away from what’s most important? Let’s come back to that.
I have spent the last week sitting many hours in, first a hospital, and now a nursing home room. My aunt, who has celebrated 93 great birthdays, took a fall and ended up needing some medical assistance. She is now doing some rehab in a nursing home.
As I sat with her, in this time leading up to Christmas, I found the darkness getting most of my focus. Will she ever recover? How long will it take? When am I going to get all the things done that I need to be doing to prepare for Christmas? Look at all the time I am missing in this Christmas season with my wife and kids, and soon it will be over.
I heard that Saturday was the first day of winter. The shortest day of the year in regard to light; the longest amount of darkness. Did you ever stop to think about that in this time that we celebrate the birth of Jesus; the Light of the world.
Could it be any more appropriate when we are living in the most darkness that we get to celebrate the Light that has come to vanquish the darkness. The very Light that will rescue us from the darkness that continually desires to overtake us.
I know, you are wondering about now how I can compare the physical darkness of night with the Light that is Jesus. It’s pretty simple really. When the enemy, that is Satan, that is spiritual darkness, distracts us from the Light; we might as well be walking around in the woods with not even the moon or stars overhead. I’m talking the kind of dark where you can’t even see your hand in front of your face.
But then enters the tiniest sliver of light into that dark room and everything changes. The more light we let in, the more the shadows pull back and have to disappear; they have no choice because the Light always overtakes the dark.
I know lots of folks struggle during the holidays. We have all experienced some kind of trauma or catastrophe during December. But we have a choice to either allow the darkness to consume us, or to focus on this great Light that has come into the world. This Light that truly saves us from the darkness and death.
One of our favorite Christmas movies has a line in it that breaks my heart every time we watch it. The main character says that she can’t wait for December 26 so that Christmas will be over. Her focus has become all the busyness and stuff about Christmas; the darkness has done a great job keeping her from seeing the Light.
I can easily do this in my own life as well, but from the opposite side of the coin. December 26 is my least favorite day of the year. I lament the fact that mankind comes out of the Christmas spirit and settles back into the darkness of a fallen world. But I have a choice; focus on what might be on the 26th and let it ruin my whole December, or focus on the 25th. I can choose to focus on Christmas, Jesus, and the amazing joy that seems to change even the crustiest of souls in the lead up to the coming of the Light.
So, I conclude with this. As I sit here in this nursing home room, in the last few days leading up to Christmas and the coming Light; I will choose Jesus. Whatever happens to my aunt, I will choose to focus on the Light. I will not let the enemy distract me with the darkness that is illness, sin, and waiting. The darkness would like nothing more than to dim the light that is coming; this Christmas gift that leads to Heaven.
Make the right choice this Christmas and in the year to come. Don’t let the darkness dim the Light in your life.
Christmas is about Jesus’ birth, life, cross, resurrection. Choose to look for the Light.
The Few 
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