Wednesday 24th December 2025
Janet Anderson
“On them light has shined…”
Isaiah 9: 2 (NRSV)
A light-bulb moment?
Isaiah lived in a time of great darkness.
God’s call to Isaiah, Isaiah 6:8, had been perfectly clear: “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
Us? A call not just from God then, but from the Godhead, Three in One! Really? But this is the Old Testament not the New! How illuminating!
“Here am I! Send me!”
Isaiah’s words were instant, full of excitement and eager intent to radiate the good news. The good news!
Suddenly all becomes clear! How does this moment of clarity affect you? What else might it reveal to us about other prophecies in the Old Testament, and in the New? What did it mean for Isaiah? And the people of his time? Not a lot! The people had long darkened their eyes, dulled their ears and hardened their hearts, and they fumbled on in their own dismal, every-man-for-himself kind of way.
For Isaiah, his commission must have seemed impossible. But for God, nothing is impossible. Isaiah’s words, seemingly ineffectual at the time, are indeed the mirror that throws direct unobstructed light straight into the New Testament and on to that star shining so brightly over the newborn baby Jesus on that first crystal-clear, still and starry, starry night in Bethlehem.
A single reflected ray of light, no matter how small or insignificant, can produce another, and another. Thus, we too have potential this Christmas Eve to increase the intensity and power of the light of Love that shines over Bethlehem and upon our world today, on to that same Christmas star, and on to future generations over centuries to come.
Shall we pray?
Loving Father, may we dust ourselves down, scrub up and polish till we gleam, that we might ever perfectly reflect your light and magnify your Name, with the fervour, courage and faith of Isaiah, through your Hope, your Peace, your Joy and your Love this Christmas-time and always. Amen.
Janet Anderson is a member of Longniddry Parish Church and lives in Gullane.
Thinking it through:
What is at work for us here? Science? Scripture? God? All Three?
Shed a little light on the matter and visit Edinburgh’s Camera Obscura to see what a relatively tiny mirror and a shard of light can do to magnify the view… of Princes Street, and East Lothian, and the Borders…. and the world!
Take a look in the mirror! What do we reflect and to whom? Love, Peace, Joy, Hope? Constantly? Brightly? Dimly? To one? to some? To all?
Listen to or watch Michael Jackson as he shares his song Man in the Mirror. Dance along and get in the groove. Practise all the MJ moves, even the “moonwalk”, “backsliding” as you will – we all do, but it can still be fun and productive going nowhere!