The God Who Is With Us: A Five-Day Advent DevotionalSample

When I think of the new heavens and new earth that the book of Revelation gives us a brief glimpse of, I think of it as the brightest and most beautifully lit place our eyes have ever seen. I think I have good reason to believe that too, especially when you consider that it will be the light of God that replaces our former need for lamps, light switches, and the sun. I think we can safely assume that this will be no dimly lit world!

If you’re still unsure, think back on the light of Moses’s face after he had spent time conversing with God on Mount Sinai and how he had to wear a veil because his face was too bright for others to behold.

For the Lord God will be their light. (Rev. 22:5)

And not just light to see the next foot in front of us so we don’t stumble but the light of illumination. We will “know fully, even as [we] have been fully known.” (1 Cor. 13:12) All that has been hidden will be revealed by the light of the Lord God. All the internal darkness our hearts have been immersed in will be lifted and replaced with the beautiful, shame- and guilt-lifting light of God. Imagine the astonishing clarity and warmth of such a light.

And night will be no more. (Rev. 22:5)

The light and illumination of Christ that we will one day live under can be experienced even now, as God gives us glimpses of it through the reassurance of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. The God who loves us is a God whose light is never obscured by the darkest night. Whatever your eyes are unable to see, God sees with undimmed clarity.

If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. (Ps. 139:11–12)

Has the radiant sparkle of Christmas only illuminated the reality that you are stepping into a new year that contains far more darkness and obscurity than you care to admit? Does January feel like entering a world without the sun, where there is no clarity of direction and no vision for what lies ahead? Well, from your vantage point, everything you’re feeling may be true. Because the truth is, we don’t know the sickness and sadness or the pain and perplexities that may be lurking around the corner when the new year comes. What we do know is that not knowing a thing leads to greater faith in the something we do know, which, in our case, is the Someone we know.

Let me say it like this: the darkness can’t make you invisible to God. It can’t make you obscure to the one who dwells in unapproachable light, as the apostle Paul told Timothy (1 Tim. 6:16). His presence is as piercing as the lightning that cuts like a neon knife through the night sky in an electrical storm. To God, the darkness is just as illuminating as the light is to us.

Bask in this light.