Lairy Lights

I have been hosting more visitors at my home these past few years. Ahead of a church social there last week, I put up some Christmas decorations in advance of my preferred date of the 24th, knowing my guests would expect some kind of festive nod. Up went a few strings of fairy lights, mainly white, but one set multicoloured. Some flashed, others just glowed. The whole effect was pretty enough, though they elicited some gentle mockery from one who thought them old fashioned. Some extra sparkle seems to be what we need during these long, dark nights.

Attractive though they are, one could barely read a novel by their light, nor prepare a dinner, nor search for a missing object. Their tiny bulbs shed too little light to be helpful or useful. They look nice, but are otherwise quite impractical. I think this is often the case with non-Christian religions. While essentially spreading spiritual darkness and theological untruth, they do offer dainty illumination of some areas, such as right living or even the case for theism. Other religions might make us more ethical, more considerate or even more convinced of the existence of the spiritual realm: but of salvation, they enlighten nothing, keeping us in the dark. Only Christ is the Light of the World; only He can show us, by His written word, heaven and hell, life and death, sins remitted and sins outstanding. Christianity is sunshine on a clear day; other religions are twinkling fairy lights on a long, dark night, dimming with time’s passage, batteries waning, glows diminishing.