Illumination

A few nights ago, I was disturbed from my sleep… When I opened my eyes, I found that complete darkness greeted me. Naturally I looked towards our bedroom window and was surprised that there was just a teeny tiny bit of light shining through the curtains. It then occurred to me there was a power failure and the entire neighbourhood had no lights on, at that point I was so thankful for that tiny bit of light which came into the room… This light came purely from the moon and stars shining in the night sky.  (Like seriously, I’m sure that when God created the night skies, He thought of me and added a few extra stars for good measure. He totally knew I would never survive being in a dark world!)

Now normally, when the power goes out I will either get the rechargeable light or switch on my phone’s torch until the power returned. But I found myself not wanting to disturb the entire household to get the light or to switch on my torch as my phone battery was almost dead. (So, sit in the darkness it was!) I was almost tempted to give Japheth an elbow in his chest to wake him up, just so I didn’t have to sit up by myself… (Yes, that’s mean, I know, I know…)

As I sat there, I found the darkness a bit stifling, I really was ever so grateful for the tiny bit of light which streamed in through the curtains. Every now and again I would look towards the windows to find some relief from the overwhelming darkness.

This situation made me wonder why I am so… (I wouldn’t say fearful) but why I’m so opposed to being in the dark. The problem with darkness and why it’s a great anxiety for most, including myself, is that you never know what’s lurking within it. The beauty of light is that it exposes and reveals all things unseen in the dark. It takes just a little light to expose much. The other thing I don’t like about being in the dark is that you have no sight of what’s happening around you. Unless you got some light with you, navigating in the dark is practically impossible… (I totally feel like a crazy person feeling and poking my way around a dark house, I would end up hitting my face on a bedroom cupboard – yes, that did happen on the said night, hence my reluctance to go find the rechargeable. I would have knocked over everything in the process and end up waking not only the entire family but the whole neighbourhood too… I can just hear my neighbours would be like, ‘There’s that crazy woman wondering around in the dark again…making a big noise. Wake everybody up, why don’t you?’)

I once Googled ‘What is darkness?’ I learnt that darkness is merely the total absence of light. How simple and obvious is that, where there is light there is no darkness. That night whilst I sat in the dark, I decided to distract myself and focus my mind on something else, so I thought about some of my favourite scriptures… I then realised how many references there are in the bible about light and darkness. Too many to mention in this post but I realised some of my favourite Bible verses are about light. (I think I love verses about light so much because as you would have gathered by now, I really am not fond of the dark at all…)

I love that the Bible says that Jesus is the light of the world… (John 8:12 – NIV) And that His word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path…  (Psalm 119:105 - KJV) One of my favourite verses is from the book of Micah, which says…

‘Though I have fallen. I will rise. Though I sit in darkness. The Lord will be my light.’
Micah 7:8 (NIV)

So, through my sitting in the dark and pondering about light, I just want to encourage you today… I don’t know, but maybe right now you are not physically in a dark place like I was but maybe when you look at your life in the spiritual, maybe you find yourself in a dark place, a place filled with anxiety and dread, a place without sight of where you are headed, a place where you are without a vision of your future… all I can say to you is to look to Jesus If you find yourself in a dark place, turn to Jesus because He will light your path and direct your way… The Bible says that He is the Light of the world. Whoever follows Him will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life. (John 8:12 - NIV)

PS. The power eventually did come back on… but only well after the break of dawn… (God sent me light well before Eskom even knew the power was off…. 😊)

All my Love...