Adorning the Darkness - Week 1

WestGate Church Teaching

Light versus Dark. No other metaphor, no other imagery more accurately and profoundly captures the story of human experience quite like it. And no other image is used more frequently in the Bible to describe what God was doing on that first Christmas. God was - and is - bringing light into a dark world, through the birth of a baby boy. The word “adorn” means “to make beautiful” and that’s what God did on that first Christmas - sent beautiful light into a dark world. This week, we explore the genealogy of Jesus, which Matthew uses as a sort of “roll call that echoed the promises of God.” We see that since the very beginning, through all the ups and downs of Israel’s story—from God’s promise to Abraham to the rise of Israel to exile, through kings and prostitutes and everyone in between—God has been adorning the darkness since the very beginning, which gives us immense hope for today.