The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it – John 1: 4-5
In him, there is no darkness at all – 1 John 1:5
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light – Isaiah 9:2
I believe I could write for the rest of my days on the person of Jesus Christ. There are some 200 names given to Christ throughout the Bible, and each one is rich in meaning. Today, I would like to focus on ‘light’. What does it mean?
This week I was in Perth, and my wife booked me into AirBnB – she thought I should try it out first in case she wanted to use it. I stayed with Jack (not his real name) for 4 nights, and over that time we chatted about life. At 36, Jack has separated from his wife of 14 years. He lives alone in a small apartment. After they separated, partly because his wife was very sick, he drank himself into oblivion every night for 2 months. The weekend I arrived was his birthday and his wedding anniversary on the same day, and he had been away for the weekend with a new girlfriend, drinking hard so he could forget.
As we talked, he opened up and expressed the deep pain in his life; his life was empty, devoid of meaning and he was in a dark place, as we like to say. It’s a familiar story to many of us. We have come from darkness, we are a world that when the veneer is stripped away, lives in darkness. We like to fool ourselves, but we don’t have to look very hard today to see desperation and darkness.
As I explained to Jack, our darkness is due to us pushing God out; the further we push him away, the darker our world becomes (that is true of believers and non-believers). Yet God never pushes us away, in fact he opens his arms to us at all times. He is so willing to embrace us, that he sent his only begotten son into our world, his way of shining light into darkness. God tells us that Jesus is light. What does it mean though, practically?
Firstly, Jesus illuminates our own darkness. When we compare ourselves against him, we see a contrast.
But light is also attractive, especially in darkness. When we look at Jesus, we are attracted to him because of his light.
Finally, light is powerful. As I write today, the sun is very bright, and we know and understand it’s power. Jesus – in fact only Jesus, has the power to change us. His power alone is able to renew us. The more we dwell on him, embrace him, the more he changes us to be like him.
God sent the light into the world, so that the world would be changed forever. He did that out of his enormous love for us. That process of eternal change began the day Jesus was born into the world. We have a choice, to embrace the light or continue in our own darkness. At times, the darkness can be overwhelming, intense and dangerous. But John, Jesus‘ closest disciple tells us that the light can never be extinguished.
We must all think about this; it must be our daily meditation, to meditate and dwell on and in the light. The light of the world wants to change us to be like him. How amazing!
Please remember to pray for Jack this week. Pray that he would see the light of Jesus.
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