Light Part 2

Before our son was born Tanya and I had a tradition of going out for a nice dinner after Christmas Eve services to celebrate the end of the Christmas preparation hustle. Several years ago we thought it would be fun to go to one of those hibachi grill-type restaurants where you sit at the big cooktop and the chef flips shrimp into your mouth and they set everything on fire and everyone ooos and ahhhs at the show while you stuff your face with Japanese food.

These types of restaurants aren’t the most romantic of fine dining establishments but Tanya wanted to go because of the nostalgia factor. She said she loved going as a kid and she thought it would be fun to relive those memories with me. So, after church, we made our way to the restaurant and quickly her fond memories of flying shrimp and clinking knives were exposed to be not as she thought they were.  

For some reason, the house lights of the restaurant were all the way up. There was no mood lighting, just the full blare of cheap white lights glaring in your eyes. The blaring light exposed a sticky dirty floor, chipped paint, and dated art work on the wall. The blaring white light quickly robbed Tanya of her childhood memories and helped us decide that this was not the place to celebrate Christmas Eve together.

Now anytime we go to a dimly lit restaurant we try to imagine what the place would like fully lit up. It is always a bit depressing.

This week is part 2 of looking at Jesus’ words from John’s gospel account where Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Last week we touched on the idea of how a sudden burst of light can be exposing and make us uncomfortable. Jesus said these words to the religious leaders of his day and he meant them to be confrontational and cause them to take inventory of their life with God. Were they walking in darkness or light? How they answered that question was a matter of life or death.

If light exposes something, that means that something was hidden at one time. Much like the restaurant we visited that Christmas Eve used dim lighting to mask its less than favorable qualities from its patrons, how often do we do this in our own lives? We are crafty creatures and from an early age we have all learned how to manipulate the darkness to make us feel better. Much like Tanya’s favorable childhood memories, the darkness we hide in becomes comfortable. The more accustomed we become to the darkness the more living that way becomes normal. We begin to think this is the way life is meant to be.

But this is not Jesus’ desire for us. This is not the path that leads to life. That is why Jesus said, “Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

I’m not a scientist but I cannot think of many things that thrive in the darkness… fungus? Bats? You get the point.

To truly live, to thrive as God’s creatures, Jesus invites all people to walk in the light. But he did more than invite us to walk in the light. He actually came to be the light and now invites us to follow him, the one who is the light.

Perhaps the reason the restaurant was so dirty was because the house lights were rarely brought up. Maybe it is time for the house lights to come up in our lives. Perhaps we need to step out of the shadows of our lives and let Jesus’ healing light shine into our lives.  

Yeah, it may seem a bit embarrassing at first, cringe-worthy even, much like our experience on that Christmas Eve. Maybe what you thought was normal and even comfortable actually isn’t good for you. But that is because we have become accustomed to the darkness. The longer we live in the light the more foreign the darkness will become to us. The more life we experience in Jesus’ life-giving light, the more we will realize how dead we once were.

So, as the season continues to change, as the days continue getting shorter and the nights longer, may we not take the light for granted. May we step into the light each morning trusting that Jesus knows what he is doing as he exposes the darkness in our own lives.

Grace and peace ‘til we rise in glory.