Linda, a friend of my mother’s, was the mother of two teen-agers when she was diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy. It was devastating news; but Ken, her husband, was a contractor who built houses, and he set to work remodeling their home so that when Linda was wheel chair bound she could reach cabinets and sinks . He replaced carpet with wood floors, and installed ramps. Their house was one story. Her disease was slow to grow and Ken decided that, since they would not be able to travel I their retirement years, they sh ould take as many interesting trips as possible; and so they did. They went to Europe, to Egypt, , Britain, and others until Linda became exhausted. At home they returned to the doctor, who took some tests reported the startling news that in fact Linda did not have M.D., but she did have a brain tumor that he was quite sure was entirely operable. She had the surgery to remove the tumor, and, though it had grown some, it was in fact benign.

The family faced a “reset” that was both physical and spiritual. They had lived in preparation for increasing disability and early death, and now they faced an actual living future. Ken and Linda sold their house, and my mother lost touch with them.

When I heard their story, it felt like an existential reverse of the pattern of most human life, as if their family had received a resurrection from “walking in the valley of theshadow of death,” to receiving “a great light”: The people who walked in darkness have received a great light; on those living in the land of darkness a light has dawned.(Isaiah 9:1)The coming of Christ created a “reset”on earth, that would not be recognized by many until the resurrection. Most of us don’t even recognize the darkness until we catch a glimpse of the light.

God gave the world a herald of angels as an introduction to the light. At the birth of Jesus, the angels pronounced a great joy, longed for by generations of people who had grown up hearing of a future messiah. For hundreds of years souls had looked for the “great light” that was to come. Some, like Linda and Ken, never expected the light, but were presented with it in the midst of darkness. The great light is the light of Christ himself: In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John1:4-5)

Love in Him,

Prue