In Him was life, and the life was the light of men  John 1:4

I am the light of the world.  He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.  John 8:12

I like to read in the morning.  At least during the winter months I get up early enough that to adequately see, I need to turn on a light.  The other day, it was a cloudy morning and I was reading by lamp light.  It was a little difficult (I guess I should pay for a brighter bulb) when all at once the sun burst through the clouds.  The page, which just a second before had been dull and the letters fuzzy (had nothing to do with age I assure you) suddenly became dazzling white with words jumping forth in clarity.  I needed no other illumination and in fact, no matter what intensity of bulb I might decide to purchase, I am sure that it would pale in comparison to the sun’s ability to illuminate the page.  In fact I turned off the light and it made not one bit of difference in adding clarity to the page.

In the few minutes I sat there reading another interesting thing happened.  With the angle of the earth in relation to the sun this time of year plus the rotation of the earth, the light of the sun shifted so that the direct sunlight started to be blocked by the door frame by which it was entering the room.  Without really consciously thinking about it, I found myself moving to keep the sun shining on the page.

Then thanks to the Holy Spirit, two things became clear.  First,  as the sun’s light, a phenomenon completely beyond my ability to fabricate or control ( a gift from our Creator God), shown through that door way, it completely and in a fashion much superior to any man-made illuminatory contrivance, supplied the perfect light that I needed to read and by reading become spiritually illuminated.  Second, that it takes effort to stay in that shining light.  And more importantly, if I don’t put forth that effort, I will eventually be relegated to going back to my own generated substandard light.

Jesus Christ said:  “I am the light of the world.”  In that statement He was not bragging about Himself.  He was trying to explain where the gift comes from that will forever be able to illuminate the path of Love and Righteousness for all mankind.  A path leading to rest from the struggles of world otherwise dark.  A path leading to blessings in this world and ever lasting life with Our Heavenly Father in the next.  Christ was also stating that His light requires actual action to follow.  Through steps encompassing the physical, mental and spiritual world, we must strive to walk ever closer to Him.  Thankfully Jesus Christ will always wait for us to catch up.

So may it be that we will not turn from His Perfect Light of Mercy, Peace and Love and try to make do with our own dull and truly inadequate self-made light.  In the end, our singular power will fail, our batteries will die and our self-made light will lose its energy plunging us into an utter darkness.  Let us always be mindful and cling to the fact that we access to a Perfect Light in Jesus Christ.  And like the sun in the sky that shines without any input or payment from us, let us be eternally thankful that the Light of the Son, is freely given to shine on us all.

Amen