Follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/markthall

Sunday, December 20, 2009

A Light Has Shined

This morning my mind is in the past. One of my fondest Christmas memories was the carol singing at my elementary school. I attended a four room school from grade one to grade eight. Every class was double or triple graded, a condition that most parents in this day and age would not want to tolerate. Our school, though small in size, was modern for the day. It had a very distinct feature that I have not seen in any other school and I have seen many over the course of my career. The centre wall between the two classrooms on either side of the hallway could be moved to the other side of the hallway on either side resulting in a two classroom space that was used for concerts and other special occasions. One of those special occasions was singing carols just before the Christmas holiday. Moving the wall involved a warning to all to stay out of the way while the door panels were opened and two grade eight boys actually pushed the black boarded wall on rollers into the other side of the school. The total school population of about 100 children and four teachers, one of whom was the principal, would participate in the singing of Christian Christmas carols. The piano was rolled to the middle of the group and I still can hear the sound of that piano and 100 young voices who were not shy about singing. Except for the odd song like “Jingle Bells”, the vast majority of the singing was a worship and praise session. One of the favourite carols, which I don’t hear much these days was “We Three Kings of Orient Are”.

As a child, I was always strangely moved by the image of those three kings following a star in order to worship the newly born Baby Jesus. I could clearly see them riding their camels through the night guided by a very bright light, created by God Himself on the horizon, to the birthplace of Jesus in the manger in Bethlehem. As a born again and soon to be senior citizen, I am in awe of the fact that the scene was described seven hundred and fifty years before the fact. In Isaiah 9: 1-2 we read:


1 ¶ Nevertheless the gloom will not be upon her who is distressed, As when at first He lightly esteemed The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, And afterward more heavily oppressed her, By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, In Galilee of the Gentiles.
2 The people who walked in darkness Have seen a great light; Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, Upon them a light has shined.

It is really important to note that the Prophet Isaiah has written verse two in the past tense. To him the event has already taken place. It is already a done deal! I interpret the term “light” in three ways. It describes the star that guided the three magi. It is also an image of Jesus Christ who indeed grew up in Galilee, a place not well respected even in the first century. The third interpretation is a very personal one. I walked in darkness for forty-eight years. I dwelt in the land of the shadow of death. Upon me a great light has shined and I regard with joy the moment I accepted and embraced that light.

(Comments, corrections, suggestions or rebuttals are welcome. My email link is contained in “About me: view my complete profile” to the right of this page or use the comment section below which requires that you have a Google account.)

No comments:

Post a Comment