Seeing ourselves

Laura Digan January 26, 2026 1 0

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Isaiah 9: 1-4 (NIV-UK)

1 Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honour Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan –

2 The people walking in darkness
    have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
    a light has dawned.
3 You have enlarged the nation
    and increased their joy;
they rejoice before you
    as people rejoice at the harvest,
as warriors rejoice
    when dividing the plunder.
4 For as in the day of Midian’s defeat,
    you have shattered
the yoke that burdens them,
    the bar across their shoulders,
    the rod of their oppressor.

Isaiah’s promise speaks into places where people have learned to see themselves only through darkness and burden. And with the media’s constant bad news cycle and certain world leaders governing on ego and whims, it can seem as if the world is a dark place, and becoming darker. 

‘The people walking in darkness have seen a great light.’ God’s gift does not only change how we feel about the world, it changes the world itself. The yoke is broken, the rod of oppression is shattered, and joy rises where exploitation once ruled. There is freedom in God’s vision.

To see ourselves in this light is to recognise both our dignity and our responsibility. Jesus our Redeemer does not allow us to spiritualise freedom while leaving unjust 

systems intact. He asks us to look honestly at who we are, how we ourselves are bound and how we by our actions (or inaction) may be binding others. 

Seeing ourselves clearly means seeing others clearly too. Seeing others not as enemies or rivals, or tools to be exploited, but as neighbours bound together in freedom. 

God’s light exposes but it also reveals possibility: people freed and restored to live differently in justice and joy. 

Prayer:

God of liberating light, 

Open our eyes to see ourselves and one another truthfully.

Lead us into freedom that restores lives, relationships and the world.

Amen