LTN Advent Calendar 2021: Christ and The Wheel of Time

Each week, as we make our way through this Advent season, LTN Writers will provide short nerdy devotionals for you and your family to enjoy. You can find them all here. Also, if you want more nerdy advent content, check out our Advent Calendar from 2018. Our final Advent devotional centers on parallels between Christ and the Dragon Reborn from The Wheel of Time.

“He is born again! I feel him! The Dragon takes his first breath on the slopes of Dragonmount! He is coming! He is coming! Light help us! Light help the world! He lies in the snow and cries like the thunder! He burns like the sun!”
– Gitara Moroso, Aes Sedai of the Blue Ajah, in New Spring

Saviors come in many different shapes and sizes. For the Aes Sedai of the White Tower, women who practice “magic” as servants of all, their salvation prophecies (called the Karatheon Cycle) fill them with hope and fear, for they await the birth of the Dragon, a man destined to save the world… or to break it. Throughout Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time, this uncertainty drives every major interaction the Dragon Reborn has with Aes Sedai. Some would end the Dragon to forestall the destruction they are sure that he will bring. However, any chance at salvation is enough to motivate others to come to his aid, and Jordan begins his epic fantasy series with Moiraine, the Aes Sedai, and her Warder named Lan while they search for the Dragon. Moiraine and Lan race against the Darkfriends and other servants of the Dark One in hopes that they might reach the Dragon Reborn and help him save the world.

The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
on them has light shone.
Isaiah 9:2 ESV

At this time of year, we revisit our own salvation prophecies, given to us by the prophets of the Old Testament. Unlike the Prophecies of the Dragon, our prophecies filled generations with hope for a coming Messiah, a Christ, one who would rescue them from bondage. At Christmas, we celebrate His coming—born of a virgin, lying in a manger—as we await His return—with eyes like flames, tongue like a sword. We have hope from His coming and for His return. His love was made manifest by His incarnation. We rejoice as we share the good news that He has come to give us peace. This Christmas, may we be Children of the Light. Let us be children of Him who shines in the darkness, bringing justice and peace.

For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6 ESV