Valerie Rae Hanneman
There is so much to love about Christmas. To begin with, worldwide, everybody stops to celebrate Jesus’ birthday – to quote my favorite preacher-guy “All this fuss over Jesus.” I love to ring the bells for the Salvation Army. I love the two days I spend with Fawn as we bake and make our gifts for our loved ones. And I love the lights of Christmas. This year my mom and I drove through Cindy Lane in Clovis. The whole subdivision decorates their homes with lights – it is simply incredible. I am of the belief that Cindy Lane can be seen from the moon during Christmas - there are so many lights! Truly, Christmas is the Season of Light!
There are four seasons of light in our human history. Each appearance of the light is for a season of time, changes everything that had come before it, and brings us closer to God.
The first season of light shows up in Genesis and is the weakest of the four lights. It happened when God said, “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:14) and created the sun that warms our planet and gives life to the plants, seas, animals and us. I do not know how long after the creation of the sun that Adam and Eve brought sin into the world. I would like to think it was a million years – but the practical side of me (the side that knows me too well) wonders if it was even a year. Once sin entered into the world there had to be a method of reconciliation between sinful man and perfect God. God gave man a system of animal sacrifice as this first method of reconciliation. This method of reconciliation required that humans work to bring about the reconciliation. Humans had to offer different types of sacrifice for different types of sin and there were the annual sacrifices at Passover to cover all of the people’s sins. The problem was that the animal sacrifices were insufficient to fully cover sin and each year, sin had to be covered again. The form of reconciliation based on humans work was weak and insufficient. God was at His most distant – hidden behind the curtain in the Holy of Holies in the Temple.
The second season of light can be found in John 1:4 & 9 when the Word says, “In Him was life and the life was the light of men” and “The true Light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.” This Light was – and is – Jesus. Born of a virgin, born in a stable, God has left the glory of eternity to become Emmanuel, God with us. No longer distant, God is with us physically. For thirty-three years the Light of the World walks with us, He talks with us, He touches us with His love, and then He dies for us as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. No longer dependent on the imperfect sacrifices given by man, reconciliation with God is now dependent only on the once-and-for-all sacrifice given by God. This reconciliation brings us closer to God then ever before.
The third season of light came after Jesus rose from the dead and returned to eternity with His Father. It happened on the day of Pentecost when the Book of Acts 2:3 records, “They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.” This season of light is the outpouring of Holy Spirit. On this day everything changed because God is no longer distant, He is no longer physically with us; instead He has chosen to dwell within us. This is when reconciliation changed to relationship as God no longer speaks to us through the priests and the prophets, nor even through the physical presence of Jesus, but through Holy Spirit within us. God is no longer distant and behind a curtain, nor does He physically walk with us anymore. Instead, He dwells within us to personally guide us, teach us and protect us. This is the season of light that humanity currently lives within. God within us is closer to us than He has been at any time in our history. But this is not the last season of light.
The last season of light has not yet come to us. We are told of it in Revelation 19:11 & 16 when elderly John records what was reveled to him as this, “I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse whose rider is named Faithful and True” and “On His robe and on His thigh He has this name written, “King of kings and LORD of lords.” Jesus, the Light of the World, is coming back to this world. Only He is not coming back as a servant, or as a sacrifice. He is coming as King of kings and LORD of Lords to take His proper place as Messiah-King and to make everything in this sad broken world right again. And we who are in relationship with Him will be riding beside Him, chosen to share in His final victory. This final and greatest season of light is an eternity in His presence, where we will finally enjoy a perfect relationship with our God that is not marked by sin or shame, tears or pain. We will live with Him in the New Jerusalem that is lit not by the weakness of the sun but rather by the glorious radiance of The Son. We will finally be complete.
Cindy Lane is bright with lights, marking Christmas as the Season of Lights. It is beautiful! But Jesus says that we ain’t seen nothin’ yet. He says that in the final season of lights – the season when He takes His throne – will be more glorious than anything we can imagine – in fact He says that we are incapable of imagining it. As bright as the Christmas lights are, they are not as bright as our future.
LORD Jesus, my relationship with You is more joy than I could believe was possible, and yet Your promise is that even greater joy awaits me in the fourth season of light. I can hardly wait to be with You, to worship You as You are seated on Your throne.
Contact Valerie or sign up for the e-Ministry of FFBC at Valerie@fresnofirst.org
Posted by Valerie at December 23, 2007 07:55 PM