Light of the world

 Imagine it's the year 1486.   Henry 8th is on the throne.   You are a simple peasant or a trader or merchant.  You live in a very simple home made with simple tools.  You walk everywhere.  If you are a woman you can be expected to live until you are about 48 but you might very well die in childbirth.  You get your news from people who aare travelling from place to place.   You can't read.  You believe in God.  You have never been further than the edge of your town.   You live by the length of the days, getting up at sunrise and going to bed not long after sunset because the only light you have to live by is candle or tallow lamp light and candles and oil are a relative luxury.

Now imagine that into this simple life comes.........

Fireworks.   

The Chinese have had them for a long time but they arrive in the UK in the 1480s and the first record of them is being used at the wedding ( one of the weddings) of Henry 8th.   What must people have thought?  How could they possibly have explained the explosion of light and colour and sound in the dark night sky?  They must have been both terrified and utterly and completely amazed.  This was something so unimaginable and new.   I dont think that these days we have much idea about the ' new'.    When was the last time something truly astonished by it's innovation?  Probably the only thing in my lifetime has been the internet.  I do remember being pretty amazed by that when it became universally available.  But in the middle ages the sight of a firework must have seemed like magic and miracle all at once.

The reason Im pondering this today is that I was driving in the dark through a local village last night and most of the houses were bedecked in Christmas lights.  They look so pretty and I started to wonder why we love sparkly twinkly lights so much.  And then I wondered when this tradition of decorating with lights started and I remembered back to my childhood when my Mum bundled my brother and I into the back of the car in our pyjamas and drove us to Blackpool to look at the illuminations.   The Christmas house decorating thing is a relatively recent happening, brought over from America no doubt.   But  our fascination with lights goes way back.   

When Jesus says He is the light of the world. Ive always sort of envisaged Him being like a candle flame or perhaps a lighthouse beam.  That's the picture that comes to mind.  But today Im wondering if Jesus isnt more like a firework, or like the Christmas lights.  I think His light is more beautiful and colourful and twinkly and fun and surprising than a single yellow beam.   He doesnt merely light up the darkness with a 100watt bulb so we can see where we are going.   He explodes across the night sky making us ' Ooooh '  and ' Aaahhh' and laugh with excitement.  He is multi-faceted, multi- coloured joy.   If you read Revelation 4 with your eyes and ears open you will see just how much colour and light and sound surrounds His presence   

One good thing -  I put up Christmas lights on the front of our house :)