Encouragement

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The Light that Shines in Darkness

Many times in our Christian walk God falls silent. The stage is dim, the curtain comes down, and the crowd goes home leaving us alone with our thoughts. What light that filters in gives rise to the shadows of our torment. Circling, stretching, fading and reappearing they steal our sleep, our joy, and our sense of self. We pray for light but none comes. We diligently seek a path through the shadows to escape. Time abandons us; peace of mind goes on vacation. Hope is on medical leave; endurance takes a long winter’s nap. Unaware of purpose’s whereabouts, the soul drifts further out.

When daylight comes, darkness consumes it, making the eve as the day. Wrapped in a smoky swirl of remembrance, we plummet to uncharted depths. We become tired. Our quest for light attaches to the smoke and escapes. No one notices.

God has forgotten us. Or has he?

God became man for more reasons than one. When you love someone, you want to know all about him or her. You want to live in their body, walk their paths, eat their food, dream their dreams; abide with them every step of the way. In the flesh, Christ learned all about those he loved the most to understand our frailty. He understands our tears, feels our pain, and knows our weaknesses and fears.

His firsthand account of life on Earth provided everything necessary for Christ to empathize with his Creation. It allows him to weep with us, to understand our confusion, to sympathize with us in trouble, and to empathize when we experience pain and suffering in this life. Yes, he is our Creator. Our emotions mirror his. Did he have to come and live among us? No, he wanted to dwell among us; he wanted to live as we live.

God is always there whether we can see, feel, or acknowledge him. Our greatest frailty then is spiritual myopia. The human is spiritually nearsighted unable to judge the distance from trial to triumph and back again. For this reason, he gave his life for us and sits in intercession for us at the right hand of the Father. He guides us because he understands. He knows what it is like to feel forsaken. He was also in the dark that day on the Cross- forsaken by his Father.

He withstood the greatest rejection of all time. Who better to understand what we have gone through (or are going through), but him? Who better to cry to but him? Still we ask, why the darkness? We ask without understanding once again guilty of myopic vision failing to see hope on the horizon. We know not what plans the Father has in store for us.

The hope is then the inexplicable certainty of providential blessings. There is hope on the horizon, even if we cannot see it. There is happiness on the other side of that mountain, even if we cannot sense it. There is peace at the end of the journey, though we feel it not. There is love at the end of the line, though no one is here to show us yet. There is renewed faith on the mountaintop, even if the clouds prevent our view of it. Though we may not know the time, we are sure of its arrival, according to promise. To see it, we must heal hope. Once hope is well, it will lead you the rest of the way. Never lose hope for it is your best friend in times of trouble. Follow it to the light.

Copyright 2007. Tina Diane Mitchell.

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