"Light in Dark Places"

Somewhere along the line in my childhood, my family toured a cave. I was awed by the wonder of the gigantic stalagmites and stalactites. When I close my eyes and remember the damp chill of the innards of the earth I shiver a bit.

But then there is the memory of the moment when our guide had all of us find a place to sit down and - after warning of what was about to happen - turned off all the artificial lights.

I couldn’t believe how dark it got. I couldn’t seem to have a sense of which direction was up. I groped around and finally found the familiar feel of my Dad as I grabbed his hand.

As I remember it the tour guide didn’t allow this to last long. She turned on a flashlight. And to my fear filled eyes it just as well have been a searchlight. The light was so bright in comparison to utter darkness I had just experienced.

You know, when you think about it a simple flashlight, a tool that might not cost more then five bucks, can push back the overwhelming, scary darkness of the deepest cave. A simple beam of light that might not even be visible at ground level on a sunny day can become a laser beam in deep darkness. A pin prick of light in utter darkness sets the world right again and calms fears.

We recall that when God created Planet Earth to be our home, he came onto a scene that was dark and void. The first thing God did was to push back the darkness with light and then brought order to the chaos. He created light as a means for life to survive and to thrive.

We recall that God sent Jesus to be the light of the world. He sent Jesus to re-create the fallen human race and to restore hope to people in despair. Essentially Jesus came onto a scene that had been made formless and dark by human rebellion and humanity’s inhumanity. Then Jesus, in his birth, teaching, lifestyle and personal victory over death on Easter morning, pushed back the darkest dark of all, death and satan’s power, with the light of heaven’s glory. To use the language of John, the gospel writer, Jesus was the light shining into our darkness; the darkness could not conquer the light he brought.

These days it isn’t to hard for us to get the head-over-heals sensation of that comes from the darker corners of life. It isn’t too hard to lose our sense of direction in a world that is topsy-turvy with distractions and befuddlements.

Easter invites us to look from the dark cave of life to him. Jesus is the Light of the World, living still in our midst. Jesus is the presence of the light, the only light in which we live, grow, and flourish.

"I am the light of the world," he said. "If you follow me, you won't have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life" (John 8:12 NLT).