It’s not only a theme for the season of Epiphany, it’s a reminder from the prophet Isaiah concerning what faithfulness looks like for the people of God.

Isaiah encourages people who are living in a very dark world, a world where they are likely to be consumed and lose their faith along the way. There is a great risk for God’s people that they will be destroyed, not so much by their enemies, but by the despair and difficulty of their current experience. 

Now THAT sounds familiar. The details of our circumstances may have changed dramatically since the days of the prophet of Isaiah, but the challenge to our faith as God’s people is very much the same. Any number of God’s people are at risk of being “consumed” by their life’s circumstances. For some it is an illness that results not only in economic challenges, but the overwhelming physical needs of one dear to them. For some it is about job loss or a change in vocation. For some depression or another mental illness threatens their spirit. 

And into that reality the prophet speaks these words of hope:

Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

The promise is not ONLY that our darkness will be turned to light, that we will be delivered from the most difficult of life’s circumstances. But that God will redeem that circumstance, God will come to us in the midst of that darkness. And because of it … and because of our witness to God’s work in our lives … nations of people will come to know God’s salvation.