During the Advent season, we will feature artwork each week by ChanMi Jung Pyles. The theme for the final week of Advent is Love. Enjoy ChanMi’s painting and poem, entitled “The Glorious Light.”

A dark, dark night after another,
Long decades of silence and waiting,
The weight of sin and grief
Pressing down on weary souls.

On that silent, silent night,
At the peak of darkness,
A baby’s cry broke through—
Darkness gave way.

The Savior was born in that humble place;
Heavenly hosts awoke, rejoicing at the birth.
Long years of waiting and longing
Finally met with the Divine Light bursting forth.

Glorious songs of praise
Began filling the whole earth.
The Light began to pierce
The darkness-drenched humanity.

Oh, what peace,
Oh, what hope,
Oh, what joy,
Oh, what love.

Shouts of joyous cheer spreading,
Good News reaching barren places,
Harmonies of saving grace restoring the lost,
Life abundant, overflowing,
Giving birth to yet more life.

The Light has come.
The Light has broken through.
The Light is reaching, touching, transforming.
The Light is multiplying.

This Glorious Light
Is still making all things new,
Still mightily at work—
Until the Lamb of God Himself
Becomes our Everlasting Light.

Description of the painting in ChanMi’s own words:

In the painting series, “The Glorious Light” (acrylic paintings with genuine gold leaf, painting on the left – 16”x20”, the painting in the middle – 30”x40”, painting on the right – 16”x20”), the artist sought to capture the profound moment when the birth of Jesus broke through the darkness and the 400 years of “silence” between the Old Testament prophet Malachi and the birth of Christ. The dark background in these paintings represents a period marked by God’s silence and the absence of prophetic voices. And it also signifies the darkness we walk through without the presence of Jesus.

Isaiah 9:2 declares, “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.” With Christ’s coming—the Light of the World (John 8:12)—the shadows and power of prolonged darkness were broken through.

At first glance, the paintings’ vibrant, colorful dots and dynamic movements can be seen as joyful expressions of praise, echoing the songs of saints, angels, and heavenly hosts celebrating Jesus’ birth. These colorful dots, however, also signify the ongoing, everlasting, powerful impact of His coming. His Light continuously fills the world and His people with exuberant joy, inexplicable peace, unending grace, and abundant life – as represented in the paintings with these vibrant, busting colors.

As John 10:10 says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Through Christ, we have abundant life here on earth and through eternity.

The genuine gold leaf used in the series symbolizes Christ’s Light and Presence—redemptive, renewing, and empowering. His arrival and His Light persist, piercing through the darkness in this world with unmatched power and glory. This Light of Jesus is the Hope for a weary, darkness-saturated world. It continues to shine, illuminate, and spread to the ends of the earth through all generations until the Day of Christ Jesus—when the Lamb Himself will be the everlasting Light – as Revelation 21:23 proclaims, “The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.”