'Wake Up to the Light'

Advent is not a soft-focus season of warm memories or sentimental nostalgia. It is a summons—a divine alarm clock ringing in a sleeping world. Both Isaiah and Paul speak to people “living in deep darkness,” and both proclaim the same unshakeable truth: Light has come, and the Light transforms those it touches. Advent is not about creating the light; it is about waking up to the Light that has already dawned. And sometimes that Light breaks in long before we even realize we are in the dark.

Isaiah announces hope at a moment when hope seems unreasonable. As the Assyrian Empire was coming down from the north, swallowing city after city on its way to Jerusalem, Isaiah dared to proclaim light to a people who could see nothing but death and slavery: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light.” What is that light? Where does such hope come from? Isaiah answers that it is not a what but a who: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders… Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” The prophet doesn’t describe people searching, striving, or groping for brightness. The emphasis is on God’s initiative. Light arrives uninvited, unstoppable, and unearned. Isaiah’s people were not scanning the horizon for hope; the light sought them. Their hope, their transformation, their future rested on the arrival of a child - one whose reign would never end. Paul echoes the same truth: “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” We were not merely in darkness; we were darkness. But in Christ, identity is rewritten. A new nature begins where the Light Jesus touches a life.

Berhanu’s story captures this beautifully. As a 14-year-old boy in rural Ethiopia, he came home after playing soccer. His mother was in the kitchen, and his father—the village witch doctor—was outside. Berhanu lay down on his bed, not asleep, just resting. Then everything changed. A man “in shiny white,” as he describes it, descended through the ceiling into the room. Berhanu knew instantly and instinctively that this was the one true God. The man in white spoke: “Berhanu, your sins are forgiven. You belong to me. You will take my name to the nations.” Then he disappeared the same way he came. Berhanu had no theological vocabulary, no Christian framework, and no understanding of what had happened. He told his mother, but she insisted their family already had a god—his father’s god. Berhanu responded simply, “No, Mother. This is the one true God.” A friend took him to a local pastor, who confirmed what the boy somehow knew: Jesus had revealed himself to Berhanu. Berhanu didn’t leave Ethiopia for more than two decades, but for the past twenty years he has carried the name of Christ across Europe, Asia, North America, South America, and Australia through sports evangelism. Light found him long before he knew he was in darkness.

This is the Advent call. Not “Do better.” Not “Try harder.” Not “Get yourself together.” Advent begins with the summons: “Wake up… and Christ will shine on you.” Darkness is not defeated by our own effort.  It is defeated when it is exposed to the Light of Christ. Advent invites us to stop stumbling, stop striving, stop sleepwalking, and awaken to the Presence that has been pursuing us all along. The Light has come, so “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you".

Blessings to all,

Jonathan