GodReflection: How About A Better Way?
Dark and light are a daily agenda item. Only a few weeks ago the eclipse was a big story. In broad daylight I looked through my window and suddenly it was night.
Then a few days ago the morning news flashed pictures of two black squares on the screen to show an unprecedented dense dark fog for the morning commute. It was night.
The apostle John describes what was likely the darkest time in the life of Jesus the Light. At what 
has come to be known as the last supper, Jesus tells his closest friends that in the morning he will die and one of them—among the very ones who share his table and his meal—will betray him with a kiss and initiate his execution on a cross. At the close of the meal words fail John when he attempts to paint the picture of the evening and the day to come. All he can say: “It was night”.
Hundreds—if not thousands of times—I have witnessed the night of pain as friends watched the darkness appear. In their night of sadness, they mourn the loss of fathers, mothers, children of all ages, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and close friends, who slip
through death’s dark door. No words could describe each event. It was night.
Less frequently perhaps, I too have witnessed the dark of night descend on friends as they receive the kiss of betrayal of one in their inner circle. It was night.
Like those I described, I too have felt the dark night of the soul. At times, it seems the loss will never stop. Grandparents, parents, uncles, aunts, cousins, sons, teachers, and friends who shared their warmth so often around a common table of coffee, breakfast, lunch, or whose voice over the telephone had brightened my day, have entered their tombs. With the pain and silence of death, it was night.
Painfully, I join many of you in the darkness of nights of betrayal. Words are not available to do justice to the hurt and the loss. It was night.
God’s clear voice opens His first communication as He declares “Let there be light . . . and God saw the light was good” (Genesis 1:3-4). He continues to reveal glimpses of light, and promises his perfect light to come, as we read across the pages of our Old Testament.
Then the New Testament opens, and we hear the people who have sat in darkness have seen a great light and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light had dawned (Matthew 4:16).
As John the apostle begins his gospel, he tells of God’s gracious gift-light freely shared with us through Jesus His Son who God sent to live among us. Listen as his portrait appears: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it (John 1:1-5).
It is Jesus who shows us a better way to deal with the dark times of life. For three years he lives on earth as Father God, yet as one of us, to bring light to our night.
Through parables, stories, and care of those in need the gospels share God’s love, as he works with Jesus the son, and the Holy Spirit to bring light to humankind. The Holy feeds the hungry, heals mute tongues, mends broken bodies, and brings life to the dead and to those who suffer. With Jesus there is light.
Jesus himself declares, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will
never walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).
In Mark chapter five, Jesus brings light to a man who lives among dark tombs and who is possessed by demons filled with the black of night. He brings light to two blind men in John four and in Mark chapter eight.
At the Temple, old Simeon takes baby Jesus in his arms and prays “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the gentiles and for glory to your people Israel” (Luke 2:29-32).
Then in Luke chapter seven Jesus stops a funeral procession and gives light to a widow and life to her son as he brings him back from the darkness of death. And still in Luke seven, the doctor talks about Jesus in the home of Simon the Pharisee when he restores the light of peace to a sinful women who has soaked Jesus’s feet with her perfume of repentance and dried them with her hair as she worships.
In Matthew chapter nine and Luke chapter eight, Jesus gives light to Jairus and life to his daughter when he brings her back from death’s darkness.
And in a small declarative summation Jesus tells us how to join him in a better way to live. What he reveals is very personal. You (that’s you and I) are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. People do not light a lamp and put it under the bushel basket; rather, they put it on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.
In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven (Matthew 5:14-16).
How about it? Isn’t this the better way to help us deal with the death and betrayal we encounter along our path? I like Light. Let’s join Jesus in a better way.
Stay tuned.
Gary J. Sorrells
A GodReflection on I Like Light!
God Reflection 