The Light

written by Alyson Arrington

This week at Morning Prayer sweet Kait led us through Scripture centered on John 8:12, The Light of the World:

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Darkness represents sin, and it’s opposite, light, represents the forgiveness from sin when your life is filled with the Lord.

I started to think about the times that I am physically in the dark. I personally am not a fan of overhead lighting, I am a lamp kind of woman. Thus, I have a horrible habit of entering home and refusing to flip on the light. More often than not my hands are full with a gym bag, a computer or a stack of books, and a bag of groceries… or all four. My eyes adjust quickly to darkness, and usually I navigate my way perfectly to the couch or table before everything falls into a heap and the grocery bags completely cut off my circulation. But not always. Sometimes I’m almost there and a water bottle falls out or there’s a dog toy that wasn’t there earlier, a running shoe… and you get the picture. I lose my bananas. Literally, the grocery bag busts and bananas and oranges roll all over the place as I trip over the unknown object. Figuratively this unsuccessful attempt through the darkness is a lot like our attempt through the darkness without the light of the world, without Jesus. We find ourselves in said darkness, carrying the heavy load on our shoulders, on our hearts. We are carrying this load thinking “oh yeah I’m almost there I got this” and then comes the dog toy, the running shoe, the hair dryer or the tennis ball and we stub our toe and mouth curse words, maybe step on our small dog, break our computer and then we fall, flat on our faces (or bottoms depending on which way physics wanted to play with us that day).

I will never be 100% successful navigating the dark when I arrive home and we will NEVER be successful navigating darkness with our loads without Jesus. By the time I get my load down, I always seek out one of my lamps. I would have been far safer seeking the light before I made my journey across the living room. We will ALWAYS be safe seeking the light of the world, seeking Jesus, in the journey “across the living room”: through life. The journeys will look different for all of us and different at different times. In transitional periods, deployments, through cancer, through abuse, through mental illness. In relationships and in marriages, the dissolutions of friendships, in heartbreak, in parenthood. In times when you can’t find hope, the list goes on and on. But one thing will remain constant, the light will remain constant if we choose to follow it.

“The light shines in the darkness, the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:5

“Darkness can’t drive out darkness. Only light can do that” – Martin Luther King Jr.

The light can always shatter the dark, as long as you seek it.