Michael ots - Saturday Evening Celebration

It's the 21st of December, or at least it is most years.

Some years it's the 22nd of December, and very occasionally it's the 20th of December.

And if you've not guessed yet, it's the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year.

Now, you might be wondering, why do I love the shortest day of the year? Well, it's not because I like winter and the darkness and the cold, quite the opposite.

That's why it's useful being married to an airline pilot that can help me escape it wherever possible.

But on the shortest day of the year, you know that the sun is going to return.

Things have turned a corner.

The light will come.

Actually, most years, if the weather permits, I'll take my bivvy bag and I'll camp somewhere up a hill facing east because I'm excited to see the return of the sun.

The sun is amazing, isn't it? All light and life in our world comes from it.

Even that torch on your phone that you use in the middle of the night is powered by energy that comes ultimately from the sun.

And it's not an accident that things are set up this way.

When God made the sun, he made it to show us what he is like, the source of all life and light in the universe.

I can kind of see, therefore, why people sometimes worship the sun, because the sun is amazing.

But of course, we don't worship the sun, but the one that the sun is a picture of.

Every year, around the time of the winter solstice, we'll go to carol services and we'll hear these words read from Isaiah chapter 9.

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light.

To those in the land of deep darkness, a light has dawned.

Isaiah prophesied that there's going to come a day when in the world of darkness a light will shine.

The light of God will come.

And 700 years after those words were written, John writes these words.

The true light that gives light to everyone.

was coming into the world, the Lord Jesus.