Advent Week 3

Hope For Those Who Are Watching

Friday, December 20

“Arise, shine, for thy Light is Come, Isaiah 60 verse 1”. I learned this verse MANY years ago as I was learning about God and missions through GA’s or Girls Auxiliary.  I believe it was a required scripture to memorize for my very first “forward step”, the Maiden Step.  I remember saying it over and over as a rhyme, which was probably why it was so easy to remember.  I memorized a lot of scriptures andnames to get to the last forward step that I achieved—Queen Regent—but this one is the scripture that I remember the most and it was the verse that suddenly popped into my head when I read this year’s advent theme, “Christ, Be Our Light.”  

The book of Isaiah foretells the coming of Jesus in many places and in this verse we are reminded that He is the Light.  For those who are weary, watching, and wounded –we all wait for the light of Jesus to show us THE way to salvation and eternal life.  In the Old Testament, Isaiah foretold that the “Light is Come”.  

A New Testament scripture  (John 8:12), inspired a famous hymn writer, Philip Bliss, to write the text to a hymn about the Light

“The whole world was lost in the darkness of sin,

“The light of the world is Jesus!

“Like sunshine at noonday, His glory shone in.

The Light of the world is Jesus!

“Come to the light, ‘tis shining for thee;  

“Sweetly the light has dawned upon me

“Once I was blind, but now I can see:

“The Light of the world is, Jesus!”

During this advent season, I pray that we all remember that the Light is HERE!  All we have to do is welcome Him to our lives and to our hearts and to spread that light with everyone we encounter. The Light of the World IS Jesus!

Nina Belle Durr