Out of the Darkness, Light
AM Psalm 97, 99, [100] • PM Psalm 94
Gen. 31:1-24 • 1 John 2:1-11 • John 9:18-41
“I am writing you a new commandment…because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.”
The author of 1 John uses the word “darkness” seven times in his first epistle, but how are we as twenty-first century Christians to deal with the light/dark imagery? Very carefully, if at all, some would say, lest we inadvertently equate darkness with evil and light with good. Others would point out that although the dark can be perceived as negative, God encompasses all, whether light or dark, and that the ever-present God of the Old Testament was veiled in shadows until ultimately revealed in Jesus Christ, the Light of our world.
The early church leaders acknowledged the importance of both light and dark when they designed the liturgical calendar to follow nature’s patterns. As winter deepens and we yearn for more light, it’s easy to forget that every season of the year carries its own unique blessings. Christmas comes soon after the winter solstice, when the nights are longest. Then as the spring equinox and Easter approach, each day brings increasing light and warmth, and nature’s new life is revealed. It’s a cycle of days and seasons that we look forward to in our church life as in every other part of our lives.
Recently, this lovely reflection on light and darkness was published in the Arkansas House of Prayer’s newsletter, written by Isabella Porter Nguyen, a ninth grader at Mount Saint Mary Academy, during a Lenten retreat:
“While sitting in the silence and keeping my mind focused on God, an image came into my head…. The image I saw was of a dark forest. The trees … seemed to be woven together somehow. Because they were all tangled, there was no light from the sun coming through. But in the center of the forest was Jesus, slowly walking towards me with his arms outstretched, shedding a blinding, golden light on everything that surrounded him. The trees seemed to part for him, giving him a clear path to me.”
This revelation reminds me of a verse I hold dear in St. Paul’s second epistle to the Corinthians: “For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’ (Genesis 1:3), who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6 NRS). The God who created night and day is the God who comes in our darkest times and shines the light of eternal love to us in the face of Jesus Christ.
Written by Kay DuVal
Writing on this rare warm and sunny last day of January, slipped in between the frigid temperatures of last week and the impending snow of this, Kay gives thanks for the cardinals and other birds brightening the backyard.