Words by David Byrd | Image by Blakeney Clouse
As the Christmas season is once again upon us, my mind races back to the early 1970s. I was twelve years old and the oldest of five children. Along with my brothers, Danny and Jeff, I had asked Santa for a new bicycle.
It was our habit to wake up incredibly early on Christmas morning to see what the jolly old fellow had left for us. Around two o’clock that morning, I woke up and staggered down the hall toward the living room. Though I did not dare turn on the lights for fear of waking my parents, I noticed some chrome shining from across the room that I quickly determined to be my granny’s wheelchair (she had recently had surgery and was recuperating at our house). Dejected, I walked back down the hall toward the bed I shared with my brothers.
Later that morning, but before the sun had crept over the woodline in front of the house, my brothers slipped out of the bed and crept into the living room, where I had been disappointed a few hours earlier. Out of nowhere, they awakened me and begged me to come see the new bicycles. I rolled over and mumbled something about Granny’s chrome-laden wheelchair and how it had played the same cruel trick on them. They persisted until I got up and eased down the hallway back to the living room, where, lo and behold, there they were: three of the most beautiful purple bicycles, complete with banana seats and raised handlebars!
What made all the difference on this trip to the living room was that the light had been turned on, illuminating the darkness.
Christmas is all about the arrival of the Light of the world and how that light illuminates the darkness. Part of Zechariah’s prophecy in Luke 1:78-79 reads, “Because of the tender mercy of our God, with which the Sunrise from on high will visit us, to shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
A precious little baby, whose birth we celebrate every Christmas, came into this world to set us free from the bondage of sin that entangles every one of us. Our response to His sacrifice on the cross determines where we will spend eternity. If we reject His sacrifice on our behalf, then we are destined to spend eternity in hell, where we will have to endure the wrath of God and pay the penalty for our sins. But if we are willing to accept His sacrifice on our behalf and commit our lives to Him, we will spend eternity in heaven.
This gift is far more valuable and exciting than any brand-new purple bicycle. Jesus declared in John 8:12, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness but will have the Light of life.”
Once the Light is a part of your life, you will never be disappointed. And like the morning light that shined on that wonderful bicycle so long ago, He makes it easy to see. WL
