Dear Friends,
In our part of the world, darkness already falls before 7:00 PM. By December, travelers will be surrounded by darkness at 4:30 PM. This annual phenomenon nonetheless catches us off guard. So, let’s poise our minds and hearts and imaginations to embrace the light – enough to see us through the darkening times ahead.
In the book of Genesis, the first act of God’s creation is light. Chapter One. Verses 3-4: the sun for the day and the moon for the night. Let there be light, God said. Evening came and morning followed the first day.
Our world has never been without the light, a daily image of the God who created it. Centuries later, Hildegarde of Bingen would pray to “the Living Light” – God, the source and model of all the light we know.
True, in the deep, cold north and south, daylight gives way to seemingly endless night. Since the invention of sunlamps, parents in the Nordic countries have their children spend a portion of the day in artificial sunlight, lest their growth be stunted. Depression and substance abuse also threaten adults in such darkness. Artificial light, a replica of divinely generated light, helps.
Light is the daily companion of the world.
In the Scriptures, the word light is used over 300 times. In the Old Testament, long before Hildegarde, God is identified with the light. “The Lord is my Light and my Salvation,” we sing in Psalm 27.1. “The Lord will be a light to me,” Micah proclaims (7.8).
Jesus refers to himself as the light of the world (Jn 8.12) and in Mt. 5.14 he tells us “you are the light of the world.”
In Luke 8.16, Jesus tells the crowd, “No one who lights a lamp conceals it with a vessel or sets it under the bed; rather he places it on a lampstand so that those who enter may see the light.” In the time of Jesus, houses consisted of one room. One lamp was enough for all to see. The light was not for the people inside, but for those coming in. Hospitality requires light.
It is said of some people that “they light up a room when they come in.” What an incisive remark! People light up the environment for one another. Is that you? Is it I?
Paul in Romans 13.13. encourages his readers to “cast off the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.”
Unless we do all the things that our faith encourages us to do as darkness in its various forms encroaches on our lives we will lose our desire for the light. Our taste for the light fades and we become satisfied with shadows and full darkness.
Here’s a prayer for you to use or to modify to embody your own personal need for the light:
Creator of unfailing light, give that same light to all of us who recognize that we need you and call upon you. May our lips praise you for creating light; our lives proclaim your goodness, our works give you honor, and our voices celebrate you forever.
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