"For the people who walk in darkness," wrote the prophet Isaiah, "will see a great light (Isaiah 9:1)."  Isaiah speaks of Messiah, the one who would come to illuminate and liberate an Israel darkened by disappointment, abandonment, and sin.
     Not all of us are Jewish, and not all of us long for a Messiah.  But we all long for light.  We all long for greater understanding, for greater insight into the mysteries of this existence.  It's almost instinctive.
     In this third week of Advent, we remember this fact of light.  We remember how, like the sun exploding over a frigid mountain ridge, Messiah--Jesus--has brought us light, the light of enlightenment, the light of hope and meaning that shines through the cold of an often puzzling, even Munchian existence.  It is a light that, if we embrace its rising, embrace it as fervently and without reservation, will change our lives forever.
     Though we may struggle with the idea of eternality, though we may question the presence of God, we do not struggle with realizing that we all long for hope, purpose, and meaning.  We all know.  We all know that we are always looking for a window into a richer existence.
     In an accidental universe, however, richness is impossible, for value and morality cannot be.  Only in the light of transcendence, only in the light of what has made us, can hope therefore be.
     The light of the world.