Welcome the light

The more we experience light, the harder it becomes to tolerate darkness. This is true in every area of our lives. Get up in the middle of the night, when darkness abounds, then try to avoid hitting your toe on the furniture if there is not even one hint of light to guide your way. You stumble around, hands held outward groping for something to guide the way. Then there comes a bit of light - it settles our anxiety, helps us make out what has been hidden, and helps us 'navigate' with safety. Light is perhaps not essential, but the more we experience it, the more essential it becomes!

God is light, and in him there is no darkness. So if we say that we share in life with God, but we continue living in darkness, we are liars, who don’t follow the truth. We should live in the light, where God is. If we live in the light, we have fellowship with each other, and the blood sacrifice of Jesus, God’s Son, washes away every sin and makes us clean. If we say that we have no sin, we are fooling ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, God will forgive us. We can trust God to do this. He always does what is right. He will make us clean from all the wrong things we have done. If we say that we have not sinned, we are saying that God is a liar and that we don’t accept his true teaching. (I John 1:5-10)

When that light is Jesus, the more we experience his light, the more essential our relationship with him becomes! Darkness isn't going to thrill us any longer - we won't desire to tolerate the things we once found we could 'grope our way through'. We will want light to be shed, perhaps only dimly at first, but then with the full brightness of his presence. Why do we desire to be free of darkness? It holds things that harm us. It creates a sense of fear within us. It creates 'images' out of lurking 'darker things' that we don't fully comprehend. So, we desire light.

Light sets things right. It dispels the myth that what 'lurks' in the darkness will harm us. When light comes into our spirit, the things that once hid in the darkness no longer have a hiding place. They are exposed for what they really are. In the night hours, that looming bookcase may take on the image of a giant monster, but in the light of day we see it for what it really is - a home for books. Light helps make the things that we imagine to be real evident for what they really are. When we trust God enough to give us the light we need, we are relying upon a light that will never go out. 

Light brings hope, dispels fear, opens our understanding. When we welcome light into our lives, we are actually asking darkness to flee. Just sayin!