Light in darkness - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2026

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the field, ... And behold, an angel of God stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.
Luke 2:8–9

Light in darkness
On the evening of May 13, 1861, farmer and amateur astronomer John Tebbutt searched the western sky with a small telescope in Windsor, Australia, looking for comets. In the process, he discovered a faint, nebulous object. His star catalogues did not list any nebulae at that location. Therefore, he suspected a comet and continued to observe the sky the following nights.

Eight days later, Tebbutt sent a report to William Scott at the Sydney Observatory. Scott succeeded in sighting the comet with the naked eye for the first time on May 27. By the end of June, the comet was also visible in the northern hemisphere. By late June, it had reached its closest approach to earth and could be observed before sunset. At night, its tail even cast a shadow on a white wall. After this magnificent display, its brightness visibly decreased. However, the missionary David Livingstone was still able to observe the comet in early July during his journey on the Shire River in Malawi.

On the night Jesus was born, an even more intense light shone: the glory of God surrounded shepherds in a field near Bethlehem. In that radiant light, the fearful shepherds heard angels proclaiming the good news that the Saviour was born: Christ the Lord.

The light of that memorable night is a divine indication that through the Lord Jesus Christ, a great light has come into our darkness, coldness and forgetfulness of God. He is “the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world” (John 1:9).

Today’s reading: 1 Chronicles 13:1-14 · Psalms 86:9-17