The Light Is Always On, Even In The Darkest Of Times
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.’ (Proverbs 4:18)
One thing that I am, with mixed results, is that I am somewhat frugal (otherwise known as a ‘penny-pincher’). I am not so bad as to always buy the cheapest stuff, as that does not always save money or avert disasters. I am thankful that the Lord provided me the wisdom to invest in a water heater that has a leak detection mechanism that alerted me when the unit started leaking, vice getting a cheaper, no-frills model (in other words, a normal water heater) that could have flooded the garage without our knowledge – until it was too late. But, when we’re home, in the middle of the day, all the lights are off, and usually, other than the typical appliances that run continually, our electrical usage is almost zero.
Though the lights are off in the daytime, we have our window blinds open and the sunlight comes in to illuminate our home. In our sun room (our former lanai that is enclosed in windows), though, the sun in the afternoon comes in from the west so bright and so hot that we had to put a drape up across the western wall of the room to block it off and allow the room to remain (somewhat) cool from the heat, and take away the glare of the sun while maintaining enough light not to make it gloomy. Nevertheless, despite the drape, the heat still penetrates a bit, as does the light.
At night, of course, the lights start to turn on. The rooms we are not in (save for the master bedroom) are not illuminated. The living room usually has the lamps on the end table and the light over the living room lit. We have night lights in the bathrooms (as I hate to stub my toes in the dark), and the various electronic devices give off their display lights when all the other lights are shut off when it’s time to sleep. Even in the darkest of nights, if the electricity is on there is always some light, however dim, shining in our home. We couldn’t have complete darkness unless the power is out, and that would usually mean we just had a hurricane come through, so I’m thankful to wake up in the middle of the night seeing some residual light from the clock or the microwave display.
In the same way as the sun, the Son, Jesus, also finds a way to penetrate into places that want to shut out His Light. There is no drape that can completely block Him out; there are those who try to do so but cannot. We read in Acts the initial attempts of the Sanhedrin, the ‘Jewish’ Jews who initially tried to snuff out the early Christian church, especially Paul’s ministry to the Jews and Gentiles throughout the Roman world, but failed. Later the Romans attempted to stop Christianity by martyring believers in Rome and throughout the Empire, using Christians as torches to light the streets or a fodder in the Coliseum against wild animals, yet Christianity grew, and eventually replaced the pagan gods of Rome to become its primary religion.
Today, we have many who simply don’t want to acknowledge the Truth, who want to wallow in their false joy of sin rather that experience the true Joy of the Lord. In John 3:19-20, Jesus proclaims that those who live in sin don’t like the Light as it exposes their wrongdoing and evil. But in John 3:21, those who are Righteous appreciate the Light as it shows their good works to be in line with God’s purpose and will in their lives.
We know Jesus is the Light (John 8:12) who removes the darkness, the sin, of the world and shows us the path of Righteousness (repentance and accepting God through acceptance of Christ as Lord and Savior). But to many, the Light of Christ, before Salvation, is so bright it is blinding they close their eyes so they don’t have to look into the Light, choosing to remain in the darkness. Even so, the Light can penetrate; look at a lamp that is turned on and close your eyes, and you can still see some glow even with your eyelids shut. If you are trying to sleep during the day, you have to either bury your face or put one of those eye-masks over your eyes to block out the light out entirely. Even that is temporary; roll over or pull the mask away, and the light comes in.
It takes someone greater effort to ignore the Light and remain in darkness than to accept the fact of the Light. So don’t be discouraged in your witnessing to someone who seems to be ignoring the Gospel; perhaps take a different tact to have them remove their eye-mask first, or to take their face out of the pillow. Then, when they acknowledge the Glow, ask them to open their eyes. Remember, God is timeless and has limitless patience, so it may take steps to have someone you love or care for to come to Christ; it may need to start with a dim, drape-covering glowing of God’s Love before you give them the flooding spotlight of the Gospel.
