I was thinking tonight about the light of Christ and the true meaning of Christmas. In Genesis it tells us that God created the light… which happens before God created man. In fact, it’s pretty much the first thing He does.
Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.[
Genesis 1:3-4 (NKJV)
I believe that light to be the Christ idea, the Christ Truth… the light of Christ that shows us the way through the darkness.
It seems so perfect that we celebrate the light of Christ during the darkest days of the year. For those that have to go to work in an office, during this time of the shortest days and longest darkness it seems like it’s dark when you get up to go to work, and dark again by the time you wrap up your day and head home. Where is the light?!
Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus, the man who demonstrated and manifested the healing power of the Christ light more than any other. And he told us to let our light shine. In fact he said,
You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
Matthew 5: 14-16 (NKJV)
Each of us have, what some call the “spark of the Divine” or that Christ light within us, and when we let it shine it lights up everyone around us… I love the double meaning of light – in the sense of brightening their day, and easing their burdens and lifting a weight off.
But how do we do this? Well the Christ light, shines a light on the good… so that we can see the good all around us. It’s easy to get sucked into negative or dark thinking. And when we do, it seems like that is all we can see – negativity, pessimism, fear, doubt, discouragement, despair. But that’s not the whole picture, is it? We have a choice in what we see. But when the Christ light shines, it shows us the good that is already and always present. We can choose to see the good. Mary Baker Eddy explains that good thoughts are an “impervious armor” which naturally resist evil or negative thinking, and in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures she writes
Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts.
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures p. 261:4
The Christ light illuminates the good that is already and always present. Jesus was able to see so clearly the good and true sense of people, and hold that image in thought, and this is how he was able to heal.
Mary Baker Eddy puts it this way
Jesus beheld … the perfect man… In this perfect man the Saviour saw God’s own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick. Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy.
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures p. 476:32-5
And the Apostle Paul told the Corinthians,
For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 4:6 (NKJV)
So we can let the light in our hearts shine this Christmas season, and see ourselves and each other in our true light, as pure and holy, created by God, Good… and this can help us magnify the good and bring healing to others.
kim hedge, cs 