Walking in darkness still scares me. I remember walking at night under a full moon across Dartmoor. It was with a group of scouts and I wanted to seem brave. Somewhere near Giant’s Basin I fell in a leat (manmade waterway). Perhaps the darkest place that I have been is sat in an addit off of a tunnel in near Shaugh Prior. I am still scared of darkness. I imagine foul things lurking out of sight. I love coming into the light. I love it when bright sunlight shines through the trees. Jesus’ arrival is the coming of light to a world that could only expect the darkness of death.
Isaiah 9: 1-7
- How is the nation of Israel’s joy described?
- What has been shattered?
- What are the limits to the child’s government and peace?
- How can all of the things in these verses be described as the coming of light into darkness?
- Where does darkness in your life need to be expelled by the light?
Going Deeper
Observation
- What will those in distress have no more?
- What region will God honour?
- What will the son be called?
- Where will he reign?
- What will accomplish this?
Interpretation
- What other words do you associate with ‘gloom’?
- Where was Jesus raised? In waht region did he start his ministry?
- How can the son be the Everlasting Father?
- What does it mean to reign on David’s throne?
- Does God feel things with a greater or lesser zeal?
Application
- Will these words be read by you at Christmas?
- Do you have days where you are an Eeyor?
- How would focusing on Jesus’ position and titles take away your blues?
- How can you picture Jesus in an exalted state?
- How does it reassure you to think of God planning Jesus’ place of ministry 500 years in advance?
Plymothian 
a Christian evolutionist’s perspectives on biblical imageryI, too, tend to fear walking in the dark (even so, I regularly take walks alone in the dark).Light is a beautiful metaphor in the Bible, and one I employ often when making broad-stroke emotional statements about our faith and New Creation.But actual physical darkness (like actual physical death, pre-Fall) is not inherently a bad thing. In fact, it is a beautiful part of a beautiful creation (indeed, death can be beautiful, as well–I’m reminded of the colors of trees in Autumn). Just as light (in its revealing, clarifying, fear-demolishing ways) speaks of God and His Word, darkness speaks to us of the mystery and bigness of God, the scariness, in fact, of our God (and more, I’m sure). When I walk in darkness, particularly in places that I know are quite safe, I engage God’s promise to keep me safe despite my wild feelings. I have met God too many times to count in the darkness. For the worshiping individual, it can be like a blanket of modesty and secrecy, allowing me to dance in the night, to leap and jump and shout out loud in worship where I would otherwise be inhibited.Sunrises and sunsets are transitions from beauty to beauty.We live in a beautiful world that has been marred by horror, but to the beauty we must hold (though the horror ne’er forget).