Scripture Text: 1 John 1:1-5

We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— ²this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us— ³we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. ⁴We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. ⁵This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.

This is our journey toward the Light.  It is a Light that has been there from the beginning, beckoning us to follow it.  And we walk in darkness, trying our best to get to that Light, to see the Light, to enter the Light.  But then, this: “God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.”  So, we travel in darkness but there IS no darkness?  That really makes no sense.  If there is no darkness, then why are we here in the darkness?

We have often characterized darkness as a number of “bad” things—sickness, fear, sin, death.  Take your pick.  But if there is no darkness, then why are those things hanging around?  Think about this.  Remember your science.  A spectrum is a band of colors, like we see in a rainbow.  These bands are produced by separation of the components of light by their different degrees of refraction.  There are a multitude of different degrees of separation.  But our eyes are only capable of seeing a few of them.  In the whole spectrum of light, that spectrum that God created, there is only a slim band of colors, a slim band of light, that we can see.  The rest of it appears dark to us.  And, yet, it’s light.

This journey toward the Light is not merely one where we are trying to get TO the Light.  It is a journey of learning to see the Light.  “God is Light and in him there is no darkness at all.”  Go back to Genesis 1.  Remember that God created the darkness and then created the Light to push it away.  Everything is Light because everything is of God.  We just can’t see it.  Maybe we’re not meant to see it.  After all, part of our faith is acknowledging that mystery part of God.  God will reveal what God will reveal.  God will reveal everything we need to see—if we’ll open our eyes to look for it.  And, in the meantime, our faith rests in knowing that there is no darkness at all. So, do not dismiss or silence the darkness. Perhaps it is what is calling you into the Light.

I believe that life is given us so we may grow in love, and I believe that God is in me as the sun is the colour and fragrance of a flower…I believe that in the life to come I shall have the senses I have not had here, and that my home there will be beautiful with colour, music, and speech of flowers and faces I love.  Without this faith there would be little meaning in my life.  I should be “a mere pillar of darkness in the dark.”  (Helen Keller) 

Grace and Peace,

 Shelli