Today, we live in a crazy, confused world. Do you agree? A person says a seemingly innocent phrase. Someone else views the phrase as offensive and derogatory, even racist. Social media blows up. The person responsible apologizes profusely and retracts the statement. They are “cancelled” and labeled a pariah. The next day, college kids gather on a campus and shout, “From the River to the Sea,” a phrase that calls for the extermination of the nation of Israel and all the people in it. No one is cancelled. No one is disciplined. Others join the gathering. And only when donors threaten to withdraw funds does the college president say anything. We live in a crazy, confused world.

Two thousand years ago, the world was much the same. Sure, technology has advanced many areas of society…but not the human heart. Rome ruled with an iron fist. There were three classes—the rich, the poor, and the impoverished. The Jews lived under the oppression of the Roman government and were taxed into poverty. The powerful were abusive. Marriage was mocked. Sexuality was free-flowing. People were diseased and dying with no remedy and little care. Infant girls were discarded in the fields to die. The world was dark.

Then Jesus came. He walked right into the disease, the squalor of sin, death, and darkness, and changed everything.

John 1:4-5
In [Jesus] was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Today, we start a new devotional series purposed to prepare us for Christmas, the time in history when Jesus entered the darkness. But that preparation is not for a one-day event where we gather around a tree, sing a few songs, and open gifts. Preparing for Christmas is preparing for Jesus, who transforms our lives. We are desperate for him every day.

You see, we all have a few dark spots on our hearts. Our thoughts and emotions are crazy and confused. We contradict ourselves in our motives, attitudes, and actions just like culture contradicts itself. The prophet Jeremiah was right. The heart really is “deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).

Only Jesus can understand it. And only Jesus can make our desperately sick hearts well. Only Jesus can turn darkness into light.

Father, calm our hearts in the chaos. Shine your light in the darkness. Help us share with those around us the One who overturns death and reflects your glory in the darkness. In Jesus’ name. Amen.