The Face of God in the Gospels

At the heart of the Advent season is the proclamation that God did not remain where he was, high above the misery of his creation, but came down into the midst of it. He was born in the darkness and lived with those who were in the darkness. He understands the pain and sorrow of this world. That a light has come into the world means that Jesus is with us in our moments of darkness. 

Whenever we gather together to sing carols, decorate homes, and stir up wonder in one another—it need not be tone deaf. We don’t have to turn a blind eye to the problems we’ve seen in the world. Actually, because of Jesus we can look in the face of darkness and proclaim, “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5.) The darkness never stood a chance and never will. The Light has won.

References:

• “Advent is the season that, when properly understood, does not flinch from the darkness that stalks us all in this world. Advent begins in the dark and moves toward the light—but the season should not move too quickly or too glibly, lest we fail to acknowledge the depth of the darkness. Advent bids us take a fearless inventory of the darkness: the darkness without and the darkness within.” Fleming Rutledge
• “For whatever reason God chose to make man as he is—limited and suffering and subject to sorrows and death—He had the honesty and the courage to take His own medicine. Whatever game He is playing with His creation, He has kept His own rules and played fair. He can exact nothing from man that He has not exacted from Himself. He has Himself gone through the whole of human experience, from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair and death. When He was a man, He played the man. He was born in poverty and died in disgrace and thought it well worthwhile.” Dorothy Sayers
• "Light is the aggressor." Larry Renoe
• True Detective: Rust reminds Marty of how things are, “You’re looking at it wrong, the sky thing. Once there was only dark. You ask me, the light’s winning.”