It’s dark out. Have you noticed just how dark it is?
A spiritual antipasto.
It takes a beam of light to become aware of the extent of this darkness. Only the presence of light makes the concept of our darkness fully intelligible.
That light is the light of Christ. And it pierces through our darkness — our deepest and darkest of darknesses. It doesn’t matter how deep our darkness goes. His light can shine there. And when it does, a path to redemption is illuminated.
This light is not an abstract concept, a poetic metaphor, or a word picture. No. It is the tangible manifestation of God’s love and presence—right there, in our darkest of places, creating in that place something genuinely new—a new creation. A creation that is reflective. A reflection that radiates the grace and love and truth and beauty of Jesus. A radiation that makes his presence felt in the places of darkness hidden deep within others.
And when that happens—when his presence is felt through us—we experience an indescribable sense of fulfillment. Because there, God cracks wide open the original purpose of our lives, and we reflect his image, and we make his presence known, and we embody his love and truth and grace.
In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. — John 1:4-5 For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. — 2 Corinthians 4:6
This spiritual antipasto has an accompanying call to worship:
The light of all mankind.
The Word went out in the beginning, into the void, and created. This same Word went out into a sin-ravaged world and saved us. He brought light into the darkness to create new life again — to recreate us, to recover what was His.