One of the phenomena of our age, which was simply unknown at the time of Jesus’ birth, is the amount of light which we live with.

Electricity has enabled us to live with the light on 24hrs a day. Life in today’s cities, and even suburban areas, is one where total darkness doesn’t exist as there is always light somewhere. Our consumer culture ensures that we can work more and spend more, even as we approach the shortest day.

At the time of Jesus’ birth you wouldn’t need to go far to find yourself in the blackness of night and to experience real darkness. Travelling by night was dangerous because you couldn’t see where you were going, or what dangers were lurking around in the blackness. Work stopped way before sundown and winter nights were not for going shopping.

But inasmuch as the darkness of night was an all-surrounding experience on the ground, the night sky was a different matter altogether. The darker the night at ground level, the more spectacular and brighter the night sky would appear to the observer.
This image of the surrounding darkness being broken by raising your eyes heavenward was not lost on ancient civilisations and cultures. The gods were seen as ‘up there’ whilst humanity fumbled around in the darkness ‘down here’.
Astronomers and astrologers have been observing, measuring, tracking the stars for millennia looking for meaning and seeing things in the sky that are all but lost to us in our age of incandescent lights.

Three magi to the east of Bethlehem were so meticulous in their study of the stars that they noticed when a remarkable new star appeared in the sky.
If you’ve ever seen the night sky when stood in a truly dark place (I have) then you see just how many stars there are visible to the naked eye – countless billions. Looking through any kind of telescope multiplies this number by several orders of magnitude, so it was truly impressive for the magi to spot this new star.

The star must have been remarkable because they tracked it and then followed it believing it to be a sign of something, or someone, important about to enter the world.
In the midst of a dark world they saw a twinkling light which changed their lives as they followed it in search of what it was going to illuminate and expose by its tiny light.

2,000 years on and for us the darkness is obscured by light. We are constantly bombarded by light so we never notice the contrast between light and darkness or get used to a scene in which we can spot a change as tiny and as distant as a twinkling star.

It was into this darkness 2,000 years ago that the Light of heaven descended.
When you are used to the darkness, any amount of light is impressive, and the brighter the light, the more it contrasts with the darkness.
And like the magi, the more you are aware of the detail of your daily scene, the more you notice when something new appears.

This Advent may the constant light of our consumer culture not obscure the darkness which frames the small twinkling light of Jesus’ coming.
May you notice the new light of Jesus’ appearing in the same patterns and forms of our present age as He continually brings something new into this world.
May you, like the magi, follow the Light to the place of worship in the midst of the darkness of this world.