Everyone has had a few dark times in life. Maybe you’re having one right now … or someone you know is going through difficulties. When you’re in the dark, you need light. In my twenties I was going through a difficult period and someone said to me, “When it gets dark the stars come out.”
That means people, of course. There are lights that come forth in our darkness, if we are paying attention. God sends certain people to shine in our times of struggle. They answer questions. They give encouragement. Sometimes they’re just present, and that is enough. They may laugh with us when it is hard to laugh. They may cry with us and thus share our grief. And they celebrate with us when the morning comes.
The Christmas season has this great symbol of a guiding star leading the Wise Men to their destination. The circumstances and difficulties of the journey can be endured as long as that star is visible. The ever-present light of God never fades nor fails.
Christmas is a great time to think about the “stars” who have shone into your life at strategic times. Think of some names. Give thanks for those persons one at a time. What if you contacted some of them and told them what they meant to you at a specific time in life, and what that means to you now? They may not know that they were having such an impact on your life.
And one more thing … having been blessed by someone else’s light in our darkness, we can also look around at those who are experiencing something difficult and be a light that dispels their darkness. What a wonderful Christmas gift that would be!
Shine on!
Chaplain Mark
“… then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.” Philippians 2:15-16
Prayer for the Day:
Dear Lord, Thank you that your light never stops shining on my life. Today I lift up to you a prayer of thanks for those persons that served as a star in the night when I struggled through dark times. Your wonders never cease. Sometimes tears come to my eyes when I think about how those persons rescued me from despair and lifted me up. Lord, let me be a star in someone’s night. Because I have held on to hope, may someone see in me a glimmer of hope that they also can hold onto and find their way. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.