Season of Preparation Day Six: God’s Presence

Yesterday I pondered a tiny infant who pushed back darkness for an entire world. A beam of hope that beckoned shepherds from the field and wise men from afar. A baby that brightened the world two thousand years ago and brightens it still.

The shepherds who had settled in for a cold, dark night suddenly found themselves bathed in the brilliance of God’s glory—a light so bright it frightened them.

But what about the rest of the citizens of Bethlehem? The small town was teeming with residents and travelers that night—so many that the only place for Joseph and Mary was in a stable with the animals.

Scripture doesn’t say that any of these folks roused from their sleep to inquire about a great light, and it doesn’t tell us why only the shepherds in the field witnessed that light.

The Light of the World came while most people slept in the dark, and apparently no one noticed.

Many of us are still sleeping in the dark today.

But a lack of awareness about what was happening didn’t mean God was any less at work in their lives. Nor is he any less at work in our lives today.

“Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.” Luke 2:10

To all people . . .

“The God who works in the light also works in the shadows.” Paul David Tripp

While the shepherds were experiencing a great light, others were surrounded by darkness.

Yet what God did, he did for all.

I think that there are times when I know I’m standing in the light. But if I’m honest, there are times when darkness still overwhelms me, like when the unfairness of life strikes again. When the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer.

The book of Esther reminds me of how God is always at work. The only book in the Bible that doesn’t mention God, yet he is there arranging every event. Esther 6 is one of my favorites. The timing of each event could only have been devised by an all-powerful God who is always at work in the details (and maybe has a sense of humor).

Sometimes God parts a sea or sends an angel to destroy the enemy surrounding us. Sometimes he places a newborn baby in a manger on a dark winter night—at work in the shadows to deliver new light.

The shadows can’t stop him from completing all he has planned for us.

This Christmas I will give thanks in knowing God’s presence in my circumstances even when I cannot see him.