Spend Christmas TogetherSample

We Hope in the Word

Lights are one of my favorite things about Christmas. I’m not much of a fan of the gaudy, overdone displays, but I love candles, twinkle lights, the contrast of light and dark, and if we’re lucky, the reflection of the lights in the snow.

But have you ever noticed that on those Clark Griswold-type houses where they absolutely overdo the lights, it’s almost as bright as daytime? I often wonder how they sleep with so much light seeping through their windows!

In the Psalms, King David continually praises God for giving His word. He says, “Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path.” For David, the law of God—the Torah of the Old Testament—gives him hope! Because it is by God’s word that we know and love Him. God’s word is also how we know ourselves—our sin and the truth about who we are—as well as God’s great love for us. And hundreds of years later, through the genealogy of David’s descendants, the Word of God came in the form of Jesus.

We have our hope in God’s word just like David did, but in addition to having words recorded on a page, we also have the Word—the plan of God for the world—in the form of a human being. John says about Jesus, “In him (the Word) was life, and that life was the light of mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

In Psalm 119, David wrote that he has hidden God’s word in his heart. He finds such great hope in God’s word for us that he commits it to memory and thinks about it continually throughout the day. Since we have the true Word of God in Jesus, how could we do any less? Reflecting on how Jesus devoted Himself to scripture, Pastor Tim Keller said in a sermon, “If He relied on scripture like that, do you really think that you can handle life with that little five-minute devotional every morning?”

Take some time today to stop and reflect on the perfect Word of God. Throw the family in the car and look at Christmas lights and talk about how Jesus is God’s light in the world. Then talk about the hope that we have in God’s word for us, and how you can dig more deeply into scripture in the upcoming year. Then do it!