Christmas this year at the Lutheran Academy was celebrated in many ways—programs for all classes and grades, the exchange of products whose proceeds will go to help refugees, and the Christmas banquet, organized by high school students—but all the activities of this year’s Advent were connected by a single theme—the Light. Parents, grandparents, and the whole community could see it plainly on the invitation posters. The words came from the Gospel of John: “The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:5).
Of course, it was not the light that is related to lighting homes and streets, or the light from Christmas decorations that the posters spoke about. The light that was the theme of this year’s Advent and which we want to continue to show the world is the LIGHT – the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a most appropriate subject because it is at Christmas we celebrate the coming of the Son of God among us sinful human beings. “The world was asleep in the darkness of sin and He came as the Light that will overcome all the darkness, and is able to ignite other lights,” said school pastor Janka Bosáková in her Christmas speech to the students.
No coincidence!
When God created the earth, He created the light first. This was not a coincidence! God created light to allow life on Earth. It is not by chance that Christmas is also about light. In those days, the Word that was from the Beginning, came to our world as Light, and this became a particular event in human history. The Light came as a child named Jesus.
The world needs hope and it can seize it now, because it is not the God whom no one can see, anymore. Now it is God who lives with us and is one of us. “This Christmas baby has a name: Immanuel—God with us,” explained Lutheran Pastor Natalia Kacianová. She added that at Christmas our families change—one small child has been added. “It is not just about me anymore during Christmas. It’s about me and God’s unique Child.”
“So as we look around, as we read the newspaper or watch the news on television, we cannot pretend everything is fine in the world,” pastor Natália Kacianová expressed to the parents of LA students. “That is why we are called to make sure we shine – at Christmas and afterwards, in our families, in our school, at our jobs, and in the wider world. We are called to be lights, because the world desperately needs to see what is essential, beautiful, rare and eternal.”
That’s why school pastor Janka said with joy at the end of her speech: “When I see the oldest and youngest students at our school celebrating the coming of our Lord Jesus together during the Christmas program, I see that a lot of lights were shining. Lovely lights of hope, peace, joy, goodness, truth, and especially, love.”
