Wednesday, February 27, 2008

 

How Will They Know Series

 

John 8:12 “I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”

 

The Blackest Hues

 

I love to run.  It is much fun and I enjoy the exercise.    A couple of years ago I decided to go exercise.  My neighborhood at that time only had a few streets so I drove to a larger neighborhood in our community.   That neighborhood is usually well-lit but unfortunately something had interrupted the electrical power.   The darkness was complete.   It was a cloudy day and the blackness of the morning was overwhelming.  I could not see at all.   Even though I ran on, the darkness was dangerous.   I was most grateful when the sun began to rise and the darkness dispelled.  

 

Unfortunately, most humans have periods of darkness, times when everything goes completely dark.  I have vicariously experienced such darkness through the lives of others and my own life.  Darkness comes in our life through rejection, death, sin, and alienation.  When that happens, we desperately need light.  

 

In the 1800’s a child whose name was Louis was blinded while working in his father’s leather shop. The darkness seemed so overwhelming to him.  One day his frustration and anger over his blindness took hold of him and he took a piece of leather and began to stab it with a sharp instrument over and over again.  Finally exhausted he put down the tool and picked up the leather. Under the leather he discovered a piece of paper with bumps on it.   He began to feel of the paper and an inner light dawned on him that if he could organize the dots on raised paper he could read and his life could become normal and enriched by reading.   This, of course, was the experience of Louis Braille and the tragedy of his blindness has benefited every blind person since.  

 

I have learned you can never really see some things until you see them in the dark.   Darkness is a standard part of normal life.  Pain is a normal part of life.   Sometimes in the darkest darkness there comes a light that cannot be blotted out.    Life has many hues -    darkness, light, and all the colors of the rainbow.   In my life I have most often found vividly the power of God in the darkness.  

 

Jesus is indeed the light of the world.  When we follow Him we have that light.   In the light of Christ the pain of the various hurts of living are lessened.   Even in complete darkness, however, God can work.  

 

Prayer:

Dear God, help me to find light in the darkness.  Help me to know the strength of darkness and the eventuality of the ever conquering light.  Amen.