Where in your life do you need light—not to erase the darkness, but to reveal what has been hidden? Gerard van Honthorst’s Adoration of the Shepherds invites us to see Christ as illumination and guide. Through scripture and prayer, we learn to trust the light that gently shows us the way forward.

Luke 2:15-18

Gerard van Honthorst’s Adoration of the Shepherds draws us into a world nearly swallowed by darkness, yet quietly transformed by a single source of light. The Christ child glows at the center of the scene, not as a triumph over evil, but as a revelation—illumination in a place where much has remained unseen. This is the kind of light that does not deny the darkness, but gently shows what has been hidden within it.

Drawing on N.T. Wright’s image of Christmas as God lighting a candle, this episode reflects on how Scripture understands light and darkness. Darkness is not evil itself; it is the realm of uncertainty, unknowing, and partial sight. Light, then, is not merely goodness, but guidance—God’s way of making a path visible, as the psalmist says, “a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” In Honthorst’s painting, Christ becomes that lamp, revealing God’s presence in the midst of ordinary, unaware life.

As we sit with Luke’s account of the shepherds, we are invited to imagine ourselves among them—standing in the shadows, witnessing something we did not expect, and slowly beginning to see. The shepherds do not arrive with clarity or certainty; they arrive with curiosity and openness, and leave changed by what has been revealed to them.

This episode introduces a simple, wordless prayer practice: imagining the light of Christ shining upon whatever we hold before God. Especially when words fail, this prayer allows us to trust that God’s presence is already at work—warming, healing, restoring, and guiding. Whether directed toward our own lives or the broken places of the world, the light continues to shine, revealing what is needed and reminding us that God is still being born among us.