“The light shines in darkness and the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light.” John 1:5 (CEB)
When my grandchildren have a sleepover at our house, they always ask me to leave the guest room door open and the hall light on. That’s understandable. It isn’t only children who are uncomfortable sleeping in an unfamiliar room with no night light.
The door needs to remain open only a small crack for them to see well enough to know where they are, to be reassured, reoriented. As I narrow the door opening, I can hear their protests forming. But they soon realize the truth. It doesn’t take much light to navigate in a darkened room.
Science tells us the human eye can detect the flame of a single candle from as far away as ten miles in otherwise complete darkness. Imagine. The circle of our inky crisis may seem to stretch ten miles in every direction. A single candle flame means it’s no longer abject darkness.
A single flame can tell us we’re not completely in the dark, not completely immersed in the anxieties and traumas. Our situation has not dropped us into a windowless cave with the opening sealed shut…as long as Jesus is there.
For good reason, Jesus is called the Light of the World. His presence is that inextinguishable flame of hope that changes utter darkness into a dramatic backdrop for light. How dark a cancer diagnosis can seem. How dark the loss of a loved one. How dark a child’s unwise choices. How dark an unexpected job loss. How dark the death of a dream.
The dark loses its dominance in the presence of light. It only wins if it can snuff the light. And it can’t. There, in the darkness, the brilliant, darkness-dispelling light of Jesus changes everything.
Faith Step: Do a Bible word search for passages that link Jesus and light. Linger over those verses as hope-givers for your next or current concern.
