Needless to say we woke up. My wife read me a few inspirational
quotes which had been posted while we slumbered and as she started to get out
of the bed, turned to me and said you looked like an angel. The shaft of light was now illuminating my face,
giving me a heavenly glow. It is an
image I hope she recalls the next time I do something which makes her feel as
if I am anything but angelic.
After she left, I pondered the difficulty of controlling light. The more I thought about it, the more I
realized this shaft of light which awakened us from our nights rest was also awakening
me to a misconception I have carried with me for a long time. I have believed it is darkness that is
difficult to control. I am not alone in this assumption.
Think about the movies you have seen where darkness is given
form in the shape of a moving cloud or shadow which is envelops the
environment in which the characters find themselves. It invades like an oozing gloom, which surrounds
and penetrates everything in its path.
It seems impossible to protect against, or push it back. On its edges people cry out in anguish and fear and in its wake it leaves death and destruction.
This makes for good
cinema, but this shaft of light has me wondering if this image is not giving
too much credit to darkness and overlooking the reality of light. In fact, maybe
realty is just the opposite of how we normally think about it.
Think about how hard it is to control light. You might say, well it is as simple as
flipping a switch. All I have to do is
walk over to the wall, turn the toggle to the off position and the incandescent
light goes out. This is true, it does
cause the light to go out, but it also reveals other sources of light which may
have gone unnoticed before the flow of electrons was cut off. I experience this every night when I turn off
the lights in our family room. What I experience
is not darkness, but the room being flooded by another source, the street lamp
in our alley. This is a source of light
which I have no control over.
I don’t know if you have ever tried to create an utterly
dark space. When I was in high school, I
got together with a few of my friends and decided to build a maze out of hay
bales for a Halloween. We moved
hundreds of hail bales and built a monster maze. We wanted it to be completely dark. This seemed like it would be an easy task
since we were building this outside of town, on a farm.
After the hay was in place and the roof had been formed by the cardboard we scrounged from local businesses, we discovered the pitch blackness we were trying to achieve was constantly being broken by small shafts of light which invaded from every small crack an pin hole formed from the uneven edges of the bales and the marrying of two dissimilar building materials. We actually had to develop a process where one person crawled through the maze to identify where the light was spilling into the darkness, and another was outside trying to cover and plug any opening which allowed the light from the farmhouse or moon to seep in. Rather than darkness filling every nook and cranny, it seemed our problem was just the opposite. Light seemed to possess the characteristics we so often attribute to darkness.
One of the things I have notices about light is that it does
not simply penetrate, it also spreads.
If you have ever noticed a pin hole of light breaking through a crack or
hole and followed it to the opposite side of the room, what seems like only
a small intrusion can actually have the effect of illuminating a large section
of the floor or wall. If this is in an old barn, where there is
dust particles hanging in the air, you can actually see the shaft of light
making its way across the room. If you
have not been in a barn, you have probably seen this effect on a day when the
cloud layer does not fully cover the sky and the light of the sun shines
through. I have a friend who calls this
kind of light Jesus light because of its beauty.
She is not far off.
Scripture tells us that Jesus is the light of the world. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness.
I wonder what it would be if we attributed
to light, especially the light of Christ, the characteristics we so often ascribe
to darkness. We assume darkness cannot
be mastered. That it will spread and
envelop everything in its path and there is little we can do about it, but the
reality is to dispel darkness all you have to do is introduce light, because light
trumps darkness. It is the element that
cannot be controlled. It penetrates and envelopes
every space which provides even the smallest point of entry.
If you do not believe me, tonight, in the middle of
the night, stumble out of bed, make your way to the wall and flip the switch to
on. Immediately, the introduction of
light will chase all darkness from the room.
It moves so quickly you cannot even observe it happen. After your eyes have adjusted and your spouse
or roommate has quit throwing pillows at you, turn the light off and notice all
the other forms of light which prevent the room from being enveloped in total
darkness.
Given the reality of light’s effect on
darkness, what would it be if rather than obsessing on how dark it is we simply
embraced reality, and went around creating the pinholes and cracks through which light will spread and chase away any shadows which are present. How much worry and stress have we invested in
trying to keep darkness at bay, when all we have to do is flip a switch and
introduce light?
One of the friends who crawled through the maze we built was claustrophobic. Despite this
fact, she did not want to miss out on the fun.
She psyched herself up, pushed back the darkness in her mind and bravely
entered our tunnel. She was able to make
her way about halfway in before she could no longer hold back the darkness and
the walls closed in. She began to cry out. A friend was standing outside the maze and
heard her call for help. He guessed from
the sound where she might be and simply reached down and lifted off the cardboard
roof. Light flooded in, darkness was
chased away, and her fear went with it.
The Scriptures does more than simply tell us Jesus is
the light of the world. In it we hear Jesus as he turn to his
disciples and says, “You are the light of the world. A city
set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone
light a lamp and put it under a
basket, but on the lamp stand,
and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your
light shine before men in such a
way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”
In some way, all who have responded to the light of Christ,
have become pinholes, cracks and windows through which this light, which cannot
be controlled, floods into our worlds.
How much more darkness would be dispelled if we quit worrying about how dark it is and simply enlarged the hole, opened the crack, and throw open the shutters.
I cannot help but wonder, in the next month, as we moved
through advent, preparing our hearts for the celebrations of light making its
way into our world, what opportunities we will be given to shine. As we delight in the lights with which we
will decorate or homes and our trees, could we also find great joy in searching
for the openings which will present the chance for the light of Christ to shine
through us.
With this thought in mind, I think it is time to get out of
the bed, toss back the curtains and greet the day.
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