Read Isaiah 9:2–6
MY DAUGHTER is afraid of the dark. So, as a rational adult who’s supposed to know there is nothing to fear when we switch off the lights, I try to abate her cries with reason. But no matter what I say, it doesn’t work. The only remedy that brings her peace is the assurance of my presence: “Don’t worry, I’m here with you.” So, as I settle in beside her and await her heavy breaths of slumber, I wonder what it is about the pitch of night that is so unnerving—not just for our children but for all of us.
Mankind has feared the dark in its various forms since time began, as made clear in our ancestors’ fireside epics and the torrid arc of history. I, too, came to fear this darkness in the grip of a chronic illness, which nearly took my life in 2021, as sepsis raged through my frail body after a failed surgery. So, perhaps our children’s fear of the dark isn’t without merit; rather, it is the first pang of the dread we adults have come to know as the very real anxieties that keep us up at night.
Children’s darkened rooms serve as a foretaste of evil they know little about, as shadows of their once familiar toys become harbingers of ruin. The day this imaginative void becomes something true is the day our children learn, like those of us who have gone before them, that there really is a flip side to the coin of life: good and evil, peace and war, health and sickness, life and death.
Isaiah, the messianic prophet of the Bible, knew about this darkness, but despite the black cloak of chaos and war that surrounded him, he anticipated a far greater flip side: a coming Light—with a capital “L”—because this Light would arrive as a baby and forever redeem the dark side of the coin. Isaiah prophesied, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given . . . and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9:6). This Light would bring justice, righteousness, and peace with “no end” (v. 7). Isaiah urges the people of God to take heart! I can almost hear him now, speaking into my own darkness and its aftermath: Dear soul, hold on! Hope for your suffering and light for your darkness are here! The Messiah is coming, and he will reign for eternity!
Light is referenced in the Bible more than 250 times, and each time its symbolism is clear: Light represents the presence of God, Christ, and holiness. In his 2013 Advent sermon, the late Dr. Timothy Keller calls Isaiah’s prophecy of Christ “the unexpected, ultimate Light.” Christ is the Light that “came to overcome the deep darkness of the world,” Keller exhorts. Thus, Christmas is the birth of Light— the great panacea for all that plagues mankind in the shadows. This is why the Advent season brings with it great anticipation and is a time so many look forward to. But there is a “withness” in Isaiah’s prophecy that is for us all year round, in whatever darkness or suffering we face.
I asked my daughter what it is about my presence that helps her overcome her fear of the dark, and she said, “It solves my loneliness.” We might not be so different from our children after all. If we face the darkness alone, there is reason for great fear. But if we believe in Christ’s “withness”—his promise, I am here with you—then we, too, can find a reason to breathe our own deep sighs of relief in the darkness, so that we might sleep to dream and then to anticipate the greatest coming Light of all. Alone in my hospital bed, I learned this hard and beautiful truth firsthand: We must endure great darkness in this world, but we also know the bearer of all light. For it is written in John 1:4–5, “In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
Kimberly Phinney is a writer and professor. She is founder of the literary community www.TheWayBack2Ourselves.com and has been published in Ekstasis.
This article is part of A Time for Wonder, a 4-week devotional to help individuals, small groups, and families journey through the 2024 Advent season. Learn more about this special issue that can be used Advent, or any time of year at http://orderct.com/advent.
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