The darkest dark cannot put out the smallest light

John 12: 35-36a

Then Jesus told them, “You are going to have the light just a little while longer.  Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you.  The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going.  Put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light.” NIV

The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going.

I am flooded by thoughts about that phrase.

Those who are lost, who believe that this life is all there is, are walking in the dark.  They don’t know where they are going.

Many years ago, a pastor said from the pulpit, “The darkest dark cannot put out the smallest light.”

It was Fall.  My sister and I had carved pumpkins with our parents and we had put candles inside.  Just the night before, as I had watched how the candle in my pumpkin completely lit my bedroom, I had been amazed by the power of such a small thing.

When the pastor said, “The darkest dark cannot put out the smallest light,” I was so struck by the truth of that statement that I wrote it in the front of my Bible.  It was the first time I had ever written anything in or on a Bible.  As the years have gone by, I’ve had a few different Bibles.  Now I write in all of them.  I take notes, I underline verses, I dog-ear the pages.  But, I’ve always copied that phrase from one Bible into the next.

The man who walks in the dark doesn’t know where he is going … The darkest dark cannot put out the smallest light … put your trust in the light … so that you may become sons of light.

Christ calls us to put our trust in Him, so that we may become sons of light.

And, if I am a son of light, can I not light the path for others who are stumbling in the dark?  I can do so by sharing the truth with them, by reflecting God’s love to them in my actions, my words and my ways.

Yesterday, I spent some time with a large family.  As I looked at each of them, three generations, I was struck by their similarities.  Four of them had the same nose, three of them the same eyes, two sounded almost identical.  Their relationship was unmistakeable.

I want that.  I want my relationship to God to be unmistakeable.  I want to reflect His love.  I want to serve as His hands and His feet here.  I want to turn myself and my focus outward, where I can be of good … not inward, where a focus on my own circumstances will cause me to worry.

I put my trust in the light.

That’s what I’ll think about today.