| You Light Up My Life - article by Joel Hempel The 1977 Oscar-winning song, You Light Up My Life, was originally written as a romantic love song. But Debby Boone – who popularized it and kept it at the top of the charts for ten weeks – said when she sang it, she thought of it as a love song about God, who lit up her life. As you know, January 6th is the celebration of Epiphany, when we remember the Magi who came from afar to worship Jesus. They came because a light grabbed their attention and would not release them until the end of their journey was revealed, and the Christ child changed their lives forever. That’s what the presence of Christ does to anyone whose attention has been grabbed by the light of God’s love. God’s light – Jesus – changes lives! Everyone who has ever lived has had to struggle with darkness. Of course, I’m not talking about nighttime; I am talking about the nightmare of sin and its destructive force. The darkness of sin and its aftermath has been inflicted upon us by others and by our own foolishness. Scripture associates sin with darkness for good reason. Let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light (Romans 13:12). Why? Because it is dangerous to walk headstrong into spiritual darkness. Go ahead. Satan invites us. Go ahead, close your eyes to the truth, and follow me. Eat the fruit; it will make you wise. Go ahead, cheat; everyone does. Go ahead, save all your hard-earned money for yourself. Go ahead, work long hours, and neglect your family; it’s necessary. Go ahead, pursue your sexual lusts; it’s natural. Go ahead, bad-mouth others behind their back; it’s the truth! Go ahead, remain ashamed and stuck in your guilt; what you did was terrible. Go ahead, hang onto your anger; you have every right to be offended. Go ahead, overeat, overdrink, overspend, overindulge; it’s your life. Go ahead, walk further and further into darkness. Don’t worry! Your eyes will grow accustomed to the dark. You will be able to see well enough without the light. Go ahead! No! STOP! The light of Christ offers life-giving, trustworthy truth, not lies and tainted truth. I [Jesus] am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life (John 8:12). The promise of Epiphany is that Jesus will light up our life and change it forever. With the light of Christ, the Spirit gives us the ability to see who we are and what we can be in Him. We not only have the Light of Christ within us, God has also given each of us special gifts* to light up the world around us. Walking in the Light of Christ and intentionally shining with the light of God’s grace, we will flourish and be fulfilled without the need to seek out the darkness. You are the light of the world . . .Let your light shine (Matthew 5:14-16). *See Romans 12:4-8; 1 Corinthians 12:4-11; Ephesians 4:10-12; 1 Peter 4:10-11. | 
