21 In the Presence of Light
IN THE PRESENCE OF LIGHT
I was a child who was scared of the dark.
I didn’t like being the first one through the front door to flick on the lights. And things didn’t change much even after I became a teenager. I’d come home from a date and dread to see the house dark. Turning the key in the front lock and creaking open the door, I’d call, “Anybody home?”
I’d step into the hall and gasp—was that a man standing behind the living room sofa? On went the lights! Whew … it was only a lampstand. And that awful shadow looming outside the window was only the branch of a tree.
In the dark, shapes take on eerie silhouettes. True meanings are obscured. We’re frightened by the unfamiliar.
But what a comfort light is! Light reveals things for what they really are. That lampstand was no threatening stranger. That tree shadow was no Peeping Tom. Light takes away the frightening guesswork. It makes reality clear.
As we read Scripture, we realize that it didn’t take God very long to “turn on the light.” In the second verse of the Bible, the author describes a brooding, primordial darkness. But in the very next verse, God says, “Let there be light.”
As I pondered that statement recently, comparing it with other verses in Genesis 1, I discovered that God wasn’t talking about the light of the sun, moon, and stars.God didn’t form the light-bearing heavenly bodies until later, on Creation’s fourth day.
So what could He mean? Where was the light coming from? I checked a couple of cross references and noted this verse in John 1:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
V. 1
It reminded me of a story I once heard Kay Arthur share. God is ready to begin Creation. The script is written; the play is about to commence. The curtain is closed, the stage is empty, and there’s darkness all around. But God, much like the director of a great, moving drama, begins the play. “Let there be light,” He shouts, and the central character of Creation steps out to take the leading role.
Jesus, the Light of the World, the Creator and Sustainer of creation, walks out on stage in the middle of His own spotlight.
What a thought! How thrilled I was to see Jesus, the Alpha and Omega, as described in the last book of the Bible, spotlighted in the very first book of the Bible.
Truly, God’s Word begins and ends with Christ.
Where is He in your life today? Is He at the beginning of your day—and the end? Is He on center stage, in the spotlight of your plans, goals, and ambitions? Are you reading His script or somebody else’s? Studying His Word or books about His Word?
He who is the Light of Creation now says, “You are the light of the world.” He has given you and me the responsibility to reveal reality in a dark, sin-blinded world—to show things for what they really are.
People are afraid in these days of warfare and terrorism. People are confused, bewildered, and in despair as the last moral foundations of our nation crumble. It’s time for the children of light to draw as near as we can be to the Source of all light.
Let it shine.
A Step Closer
The darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.
1 JOHN 2:8
Remember, our Message is not about ourselves; we’re proclaiming Jesus Christ, the Master.… It started when God said, “Light up the darkness!” and our lives filled up with light as we saw and understood God in the face of Christ, all bright and beautiful. If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness.
2 CORINTHIANS 4:5–7, THE MESSAGE
Do you remember the old luminous watches? If you held them up against a light bulb for a minute or two, then turned out the lights, the hands on the watch and the dots by the numbers would glow brightly for twenty or thirty minutes … and then fade. It’s the same with you and me. The more time we spend in the presence of the Light of the World, the more we will glow when we move into the darkness of this broken world. Take time today—in the midst of the busyness— to step into His presence and bask in the most beautiful light of all.