When Christmas Feels Dark, Follow the Light - iBelieve Truth: A Devotional for Women - December 10, 2025
My favorite Christmas tradition with my family is that several times a season, we load up in the car with hot chocolates or hot apple cider, blankets, the dog, and—usually while blaring Mariah Carey’s (in?) famous Christmas song—drive around and look at lights all over town.
I think we’d all agree that one of the most magical parts of Christmas time is the abundance of light in general. There’s something so beautiful about driving down a darkened street and seeing rooflines lit with shiny, neatly arranged orbs…Christmas trees glowing in windows, brightly colored bulbs draped across branches laden with ornaments…. It’s lovely. It speaks to us. It creates calm.
Why is that?
Let’s consider the opposite of light. Have you ever been afraid of the dark? It’s an awful feeling. Maybe one of the most appalling feelings we can ever experience. Squinting into shadows, fear grasps your throat in a chokehold as your mind runs ragged with all the potential danger lurking just out of sight. The darkness can easily turn ordinary things, such as dressers and coat racks, into monsters. No wonder children struggle with this at bedtime. I even know a few adults who sleep with nightlights! It’s a real thing.
Physical darkness would be bad enough, but that’s not all we have to contend with. There’s also the abstract darkness we experience emotionally and mentally in various shapes. Grief is a form of darkness. So is rejection. Abandonment. Hopelessness. Fear. Anxiety. Depression.
I think that’s why we’re naturally drawn to light. It does many things—it casts out darkness. It provides hope. It gives warmth. It reveals what was hidden. It divulges truth. It gives us sight.
The same list could be said about Jesus.
John 1:4-5 (ESV) In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
What a comforting truth. Jesus is our light. And this Christmas, like every other Christmas past and every other Christmas still to come, He has already defeated the darkness. Which means that whatever you’re going through this year, He’s there. He’s got the light turned on for you. For your family. For your broken heart, for your prodigal, for your sick parent, or your struggling marriage. We don’t have to fear the darkness anymore.
This holiday season, it’s not just about the surface-level, feel-good lights on yard decorations and snow-dusted rooftops. It’s about the heart-deep, healing Light that infiltrated the world to shine into our darkest corners. To reveal sin. To provide reconciliation. To redeem and restore. To beckon us come ever closer because He first came to us. Emmanuel—God with us.
He’s here. And that light can be yours.
John 8:12 (ESV) Again, Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
Because of God wrapping Himself in flesh and being born of a virgin, because of His being at once fully God and fully man, remaining sinless throughout His time on earth and dying on the cross to rise again three days later in a beautiful exchange…because of these glorious Gospel truths, we can have that very light in us, all the time.
Matthew 5:14-15 (ESV) “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.”
I’ve been signing my Christmas cards this year with this simple line: May the light of Emmanuel brighten your holiday season. It’s not just a trite wish or a statement; it’s a heartfelt prayer. It’s what we all want, deep down, this time of year, what we all desire way more than the latest technology or a gift card or a piece of jewelry.
We crave the light of His presence.
This season, as you drive around town and admire all the lovely Christmas lights, let them serve as a reminder that the darkness has been overcome. That He came. He’s here. And He’s coming again. Let that comforting truth well deep in your heart and spill out of you in glorious abundance.
This Christmas, it’s time to shine.
Photo credit: ©GettyImages/AleksandarNakic
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