A Thought For The Week Of December 14, 2015

"This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all." (1 John 1:5) The idea that God is light I can easily understand. The concept of darkness (and how it manifests itself even in the natural world) is a little more complicated. There are different kinds of darkness in the natural world, and each affects us in different ways. There's the darkness of night. That's very dark. The sun is literally nowhere to be seen. It can be a frightening place. We don't know what's out there. There's also the darkness of an approaching storm. "The sky looks dark." It's not really dark - there's actually so much light that you can see the darkness! But in a way - because you can see the darkness approaching, and because you know that there's a storm coming with it - it causes apprehension and worry. We choose to barricade ourselves away from the elements if we can. There's the kind of darkness represented by something like dense fog. Again - that's not really "dark" but the light is obscured, and things are hidden from sight. There's perhaps nothing more unnerving than driving in heavy fog - because you just don't know what's ahead of you. Fog hides danger that we should be able to see. There's even the darkness of an eclipse - when the moon hides the sun completely from our sight. All these things have spiritual applications. The darkness of night: when we  feel helpless. The darkness of an approaching storms: when we feel fearful over what might happen. The darkness of fog: when we're puzzled and can't figure out what we should do or where we should turn. The darkness of an eclipse: when sheer evil seems to have overcome our faith in God. But then there's this promise: God is light. God cannot be overcome by darkness. God will always overcome darkness. The sun will rise in the morning, the storm will come again, the fog eventually will lift, and the sun will emerge from behind the moon. In the same way, God always triumphs over any kind of evil or trouble we may face. Maybe not as quickly as we would like - but with God victory truly is just a matter of time!