I was walking in the rain last night along lighted, beautifully decorated boulevards. There was something about all the lights that made it seem like Christmas to me even tho’ my Canadian biases missed the snow. I wondered what it was about the lights. And I remembered. When the angels appeared over the pastureland on the night of Christ’s birth, Luke tells us, “the Glory of the Lord blazed all around” the onlookers.
This “glory of the Lord … blazing all around,” was light of galactic proportions.
Go back with me to two “mountaintop experiences.”
The first was Moses’ encounter with the “glory of the Lord.” “Show me your glory,” he said to God.” “You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live,” replied the Lord. “Then the LORD said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.” So it was.
“When Moses came down,” from the mountain “he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD. When he finished “speaking to” the people, he put a veil over his face.” The “glory” of the Lord was radioactive! (See Exodus 33 & 34.)
The second “mountaintop experience” was when Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.” There, on that mountaintop, Jesus was transformed before these men. “The appearance of his face changed …” It “shone like the sun.” “His clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning.” “Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor …” Have you ever tried to look into the sun?” It’s blinding! You can’t do it without protective lenses. How bright is a bolt of lightning frozen in mid-flash?
“We all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory …” wrote Paul the Preacher. This, he continued, comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” The Spirit of our Lord, who moved over the “abyss;” the nothingness of pre-creation, and stirred life into existence changes those who fix their gaze on Christ into a living replica of Him and they become what Jesus called “the light of the world.” His light, steadily growing in and on us as we behold his glory, is unavoidable. His light, John the visionary tells us, the light of God and the Lamb is the light of the “New, Holy City.” “The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light.” (See the Revelation 21: 23 & 22:5.)
The “glory” and “splendor” of the Lord is the “unapproachable light” of the galaxies! No light display of human origin can match it. But as I walked the boulevards in the rain I understood that those lights, tho’ faint reflections of the “glory and splendor of the Lord,” glowed and their lesser light bore a trace of the wonder which is the essence of Christmas …
