“The darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.” 1 John 2:8
Advent comes to us in the dark.
Not simply in the shortening days of winter, but in a world where shadows seem long— the shadows of conflict, division, loneliness, uncertainty, and sorrow.
Darkness near to us, and darkness far away.
And yet, Scripture whispers a daring truth: the true light is already shining.
Not will shine one day, not might shine if the world improves— already shining.
Already rising, already breaking through, already reaching into the places where we fear night will have the last word.
Jesus, the Rising Sun
In Luke’s gospel, Jesus is called “the rising sun from heaven” who comes “to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death.” Advent invites us to lift our eyes toward that horizon.
Like sunrise, Christ’s coming begins before we perceive it.
Light advances while the ground is still cold.
The Magi knew this as they travelled by starlight, sleeping under open skies and waking each morning to the sun pulling them eastward.
The shepherds knew it too—cold nights spent on exposed ground giving way to dawn’s warmth and clarity.
Into the rhythm of those more ordinary sunrises, God sent a Light that did not simply rise but arrived in the unexpected cry of a newborn child.
Jesus, the Rising Sun, shining on those who sit in darkness.
People of the Dawn
Now Christ calls us ‘out of darkness into His wonderful light’ (1 Peter 2:9).
We don’t ignore the shadows—but we face the horizon with hope.
His light is already at work:
in courage, in kindness, in justice sought, in prayers whispered, in communities that keep loving and holding hope for one another.
This Advent, may we look for the signs of sunrise—
in the world, in our communities, and in our own hearts.
And may we carry Christ’s rising light into every place that aches for dawn.
Lord Jesus, Rising Sun,
shine on us and through us.
Amen.
Caroline Tyler