"The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light."
Isaiah 9
When I think about metaphorical darkness, the darkest place I have visited is Auschwitz. I saw what starvation had done to parents and children, brothers and sisters: their flesh wasted away until they were almost skeletal. That evening, I spoke with a rabbi about the resurrection. I found hope in that conversation, and prayed that God would bless those who died there as they sleep for a time.
I saw another kind of darkness as I walked into the supermarket this morning, I was confronted—yes, that is the word—with gruesome masks, sinister characters, skulls and skeletons. Why are we marketing these images to children? Who is deciding what they are invited to admire? This imagery reaches far beyond shop displays, appearing in films, books and manga. Evil has become an extraordinarily effective marketing ploy. But why should we encourage children to dwell on it and wake up with bad dreams and intrusive thoughts? We do not have to have this as Fun. We can fill their imaginations with stories that awaken courage, compassion and wonder.
Isaiah 9:2 speaks of a people walking in darkness and promises that a great light will dawn one day. Christians understand this promise as pointing to the Messiah, Jesus. The Gospels show what darkness looked like in people’s lives: demonic oppression, torment, paralysis, leprosy and long illness. It marked society more broadly, too. Greed, deceit, violence and adultery corroded relationships and weakened the moral life of the community. People still gathered in religious occasions , yet many failed to recognize the light in their midst. Religious observance alone could not restore those alienated from God or renew a society losing its moral strength.
For Christians, Jesus is the light Isaiah promised, and light and darkness do not lead to the same place. Darkness can make what is cruel seem harmless and what is good seem dull; Christ’s light calls us back to truth, compassion and life. That is why the images we place before our children matter. We can help them recognize goodness and choose what leads them toward it.