Something Wonderful is Coming

     Christmas is fast approaching and we are seeing all kinds of advertisements and commercials that are aimed at luring us to purchase specific items for our Christmas gift giving. Several years ago in Grand Rapids there was a department store that used giant billboards to advertise their store as the best place to buy Christmas gifts. One of those billboards really caught my attention. The billboard had a picture on it of a little boy clad in his pajamas and he was standing in front of the fireplace in his home. The fireplace was all decorated for Christmas with holly and candles on the mantle. Suspended from the mantle was a big red stocking. The little boy was looking up into the chimney and the wording on the billboard, as if to explain the little boy’s thoughts, said; “Something Wonderful is Coming!”
     What do you suppose the people who put up the billboard meant by this caption? What was the wonderful thing that was supposed to be coming? Perhaps they were thinking of the day of Christmas. Perhaps they were anticipating the imagination of the little boy as he looked for the gifts that would be coming down that chimney.
     In the prophecy of Isaiah, chapter 60, Isaiah writes;
“1Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.
2 See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you.
3 Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.”
     Isaiah’s announcement could just as well have been; “Wake up, something wonderful is coming” because he sets in contrast light and darkness…the darkness of gloom and despair and the light of hope.

     I love what Isaiah says here because it reminds me of the image of God doing his creative miracles at the beginning of time. We are told in the book of Genesis that in the beginning the earth was “formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep.” And God said “Let there be light!”
     Isaiah’s words also remind me of what God did when God rescued the people of Israel from the slavery they endured in the land of Egypt. Not only did God do miracles to confront the gods of Egypt in the ten plagues, but he performed a miracle to bring them through the desert. We are told in Exodus 13:21
“21 By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night.”
     Isaiah’s description of the coming light reminds me of the dark night on the hillside outside of Bethlehem that…
“An angel of the Lord appeared to them (the shepherds), and the glory of the Lord shone around them.”
     Isaiah speaks of the light as having come upon them, and the glory as rising upon them. This reminds me of the Christmas story as told by the Apostle John in John 1:4 where he wrote…
“In him was life, and that life was the light of men.”
     And I hear Jesus himself saying in John 8:12… “I am the light of the world.” And further he says in John 9:5 “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
     The glory of the light that has shined upon us is God revealing himself as the light of salvation to bring us out of our darkness…truly wonderful. Therefore, all who have come out of darkness and into the light cans say “something wonderful has come.”

     But in the Christmas season I would want you all to remember that we can also say “Something wonderful comes.” We can say this because of what Jesus said in Matthew 5:14 “You are the light of the world.” What a profound thing to think about, even more profound to experience! The light of the world dwells in each person who is saved from their sins, and now lives as a witness to that light. I believe this is why the apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:8;
“For you were once darkness, but now you ARE light in the Lord. Live as children of light.”
     But this is not the end of the story, because “Something wonderful is coming AGAIN. This is why the writer of Revelation says in Revelation 22:8 “There will be no more night (darkness). They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light.”
     Brothers and sisters at Bozeman Church, Christmas is a time for lights. We see them all around decorating houses, fences, street lamps and Christmas trees. When we see them, when we think about them, let us remember what they mean.
“Something Wonderful is Coming!”
“Something Wonderful has Come!”
“Something Wonderful Comes!
“Something Wonderful is Coming Again!”
     From me and Verla, to one and all… have a blessed Christmas celebrating the LIGHT!
Pastor Jerry Blom