Could You Give Me a Light?

Have you ever awakened completely disoriented and wondered where you were? Last night I slept in a guest room as I have a cough and didn’t want to wake up my husband. It is a basement room and it’s like a cave down there, very little light comes in. I awakened early and my eyes tried to find something in the room to help get my bearings.

“Where am I? What’s that?” The eyes focused intently on the little light to my left. “Oh, it’s the little light on the smoke alarm.”

That small fact helped my mind shift around on the mental map of the house and immediately I knew where I was, how to find my way to the door, and more importantly, find the way to the bathroom.

A walk past the back door brought a second look into the deep darkness of early morning. Again, small lights oriented me. Small pinpricks of light set in familiar patterns of constellations told me I was looking West and that the sun had not yet begun to rise.

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
These words were spoken by Jesus in John 8:12.
That’s cool, very symbolic.

But wait, these words weren’t spoken by someone disoriented in the dark. They were spoken by someone who knew exactly where He was and His purpose. Just two verses later Jesus said, “I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from and where I am going.”
What is the bigger picture here?

Jesus had just forgiven the sin of a woman that was caught in adultery (spiritual blindness) and then went on to heal a man that was blind (physical blindness). He was speaking to the religious leaders of His day that did not believe He was the Messiah (further and perhaps even deeper spiritual blindness).

Jesus didn’t just see the candles burning in the temple of Jerusalem and say, hmmm, that would make a good word picture for these guys. No, Jesus had taken God’s blueprints for the world at the time of creation and spoken the words “Let there be light” in order for this illustration to have life altering, eternal significance.

The presence of light is not some cosmic accident randomly sprinkling stars in the sky to guide ships and to radiate from a candle in order to light up a romantic dinner.

It is a miracle that accurately measures time and races across distance to help us try to measure the size of the universe. It makes one gaze into the heavens at night and feel very small.

God’s plan for the world developed the significance of light by using it to focus people’s eyes on Him. He used it with the stars of the sky for Abraham, the burning bush for Moses, the pillar of fire for the Israelites in the desert and the sacrifice fire in the temple for Solomon, just to name a very few examples.

Light was created to focus our spiritual eyes and orient our hearts to the God of the universe. It was created so that Jesus could speak the words to the religious leaders that day and they would immediately know that He was claiming to be sent from God in Heaven as the Messiah of the world.

Jesus, the Light of the world, stepped into time and bridged the distance between God and us. He is the Light that will orient us to where we are at and where we are going.

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Jesus’ claim cuts to the heart like a laser beam and give only two options, light or dark, life or death.

Would you like a Light? Beginning today, by reading one chapter a day, you can finish reading the book of John in the Bible before Christmas and discover more about Jesus, the Light of the world, whose birth we celebrate and whose death and resurrection splits our calendar. Let me know what discoveries are illuminated as you read!

Lord, give us a new glimpse of who you are during this Christmas season. Help us to focus our eyes on You, the Light of the world, as we see the lights twinkle on a tree or a candle lit on a table. May it not be a pretty symbol, but a life altering reality of a daily direction and purpose as well as an eternal destiny.

Genesis 1:1-5; John 1:1-5;  John 8:12