It’s Cold Outside

Once an artist was painting a winter scene. As he began to paint, the scene that unfolded on the canvas was of snow covered ground and pine trees. The artist's hand brought the day to a close and night fell on the canvas, and the entire scene was covered with semi-darkness. A grim log cabin was barely visible in the shadows. Then the artist dipped his brush in the yellow paint of his pallet and with a few strokes placed in one of the cabin windows the warm glow of a lamp. As he finished the painting the gold rays of the lamp reflected lightly on the fresh snow. The lonely light totally changed the tone of the picture, replacing the gloomy, chilled night with a warm and secure homestead.

Seems like a small change, doesn’t it. But imagine what that painting looked like. Envision the bluish cold winter scene with no sign of life in the dark cabin. Then imagine that same scene with the yellow warmth of light emanating from the cabin’s window. It changes everything, doesn’t it?

That’s what Christmas does for us. Not because it’s the buying season to speed up the slow moving winter evenings. But it is the bright spot in the darkest time of year. When we think of winter, we shiver. When we think of Christmas, it warms us. Why?

Because what happened on that canvas happened two thousand years ago on the world's canvas. When a tiny baby came into a grim and dark world, shining light across the barren landscape and offering all the hope of eternal warmth and security.

For some of you, that cold winter scene describes more than what it looks like outside today with our weekend snowstorm, your year has been like that. While the wind may not be howling right now and it seems like the snow has stopped falling, you shiver just looking out the window. It’s been that kind of year: financial freeze, relationship cold, stormy health. It’s been a bit like that painting. Cold. Wintery. Lifeless.

But in the middle of your winter scene, with a few strokes of the brush, God is placing a warm glowing lamp in the window. Jesus came not just to calm your storm, he came to provide for you a destination, a place with him forever. And the shelter he offers today from the cold is open to you today if you simply open the door.

“The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine” (Isaiah 9:2 NLT).