Fantasy readers are obsessed with the concepts of darkness and light. From our book covers to our tropes to our genres, nearly everything is categorized in some way, shape, or form in relation to darkness and light.
And with good reason. What’s more powerful than the moment when Gandalf comes down, as though bringing the light of the fifth day with him when he returns to the Battle of Helm’s Deep with the Rohirrim? Or when Aslan breaks the stone table at dawn? We have light fantasy and dark fantasy in bookstores, and generally, fantasy art pieces feature stark contrasts between the light and the dark. In my own books, The Rose of Destiny, there’s a running theme of the silver light provided in the life-giving magic of a sacred rose at the heart of the land.
By contrast, in the Wingfeather Saga, the villains – the Fangs of Dang – bring perpetual darkness wherever they go. The new Disney series featuring their villains as the main characters has an entire brand identified by darkness. Many artists and authors now even praise the darkness, making it the selling feature of their work.
As always, there’s a reason for this. Our world is full of battles where light and darkness fight, and we feel it in our bones. We look around us and see the darkness of war, hunger, abuse, terror, loneliness, sickness, and death. How weary one quickly becomes after turning on the news and hearing of all the ways people suffer on a daily basis. And when the darkness is our own, and we’re suffering what feels like our own eternal night, sometimes it’s hard to imagine that we will ever see true light once again.
But this is one of the many reasons I love Christmas so much.
If we read the first part of the Christmas story in the Bible, we find ourselves in a rather dark place. Israel has been taken captive by the Romans, but only after they’ve been passed from conqueror to conqueror for hundreds of years. The Lord has hardly spoken to them in four hundred years, and His promises of salvation seem far and forgotten.
But then, one of God’s highest-ranking angels, Gabriel, appears to one of the lowest in the ranks of society, a young Hebrew woman. And in a few short minutes, that angel reveals that the promises of salvation that God made to Adam and has been making to all of His people since – is going to finally take place. Four thousand years in the making, in a place of oppression and poverty, God is going to send His Son to save sinners from the darkness of deathly sin that Adam brought to the entire human race. The Great I Am – the God of the universe – was going to condescend.
I think it’s easy for us to overlook the magnitude of this condescension. God is holy. There is no sin He can overlook or simply pass by. As it is wrong for a judge to give a pass to a criminal, so God could not simply “forgive” humans their sin and pretend it never happened. He had to punish humanity’s sins. From the smallest of deceptions to the greatest of violence, all evil had to be destroyed.
But instead of simply destroying all the world, God sent His own Son, Jesus, to receive the punishment in our place. And in doing so, Christ was willing to give up Heaven, power, and glory to come down to the source of darkness that had tainted all His creation.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. -John 1:1-5
In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
The event of greatest magnitude in all of creation took place in a scene of darkness – in the cold darkness of winter in a place that held an animal feeding trough. The Lord came not in all His glory and power. He came as a tiny candle flame, flickering in the night of sin four thousand years old.
A light the darkness would ultimately try to extinguish, but that shone through the darkness instead.
This is why we can have joy in the midst of this dark world now. It’s why we can’t stop celebrating Christmas. We need to remind ourselves of how God used the humble, weak things of this world to shine His glorious Light. It reminds us that the darkness shall not survive. For what is darkness… but an absence of light?
I think we love fantasy because it gives us a new way to see the fight that we endure on a daily basis. It juxtaposes darkness and light, power and weakness, good and evil in ways that are easier to understand. But we can’t stop at fantasy books and art and movies. We must wage our own battles, knowing that the ultimate battle is already won. We’re just waiting for the Lord to call all of His children to Him. And He does that through His children.
Weak. Poor. Sad. Beaten. Bruised. We often feel like anything but a warrior. And yet, like the heroes in our stories, we press on. We must. Because, as God’s children, we must take part in the fight of our Father. Not to earn our salvation and defeat our own darkness. God has already done that for His children through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. We do it because we love our Father, and we’re grateful for all God has done for us. And we want to serve Him out of thankful hearts by standing in the fight against evil.
Knowing this, the God who sent the Light of the World has not left us unprepared.
Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying yat all times zin the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints -Ephesians 5:13-18
But, you might ask, how does one become a child of God? Do we do good deeds and count them? Do we count our kindnesses? Is it just a choice we make, and nothing else changes? Well, Christ gives us that answer, too.
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
Repent and believe. Not toiling. Not earning. Not adding all my good works to His. Repent and believe.
But believe what, you may ask?
Likewise, Romans 10:9 says that we must confess that Jesus is LORD and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead.
What does it mean to confess that Jesus is LORD?
It means that we see Him in all His greatness as described through Scripture.
He is everlasting and eternally God. (John 1:1-5)
He is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit. (John 14:9-11)
That He is the part of the Triune and only God. (Isaiah 43:10, 44:6, 8; John 8:58, Mark 1:9-11).
He is to be worshipped. (Matthew 14:33)
He is the only way to God and forgiveness of sin. (John 14:6)
Truly, the picture Scripture draws of Christ – our Light of the world – is truly glorious and worthy of worship. Oh, what pure delight that He can be ours, and we can belong to Him! And we get a glimpse of our worthy Hero and King in Revelation 1:12-18.
Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and this face was like the sun shining in full strength.
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.
I tell people that my stories will always have a happy ending, and this is why. Because I know that my own story, thanks be to God, will have a most glorious ending. This King of Light is mine. This ending is mine. And if He is your Savior, and I desperately pray He is, it can all be yours as well.
Merry Christmas, my Bookish Mages. Fear not the darkness, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.