Some Light for You Today

Peace is not the absence of problems. There are always problems waiting to cross the bridge of promise to be planted in the land of possibility. Once planted, they will bring forth the fruit of new partnerships, products, and prosperity. But, for the moment, they are problems.

The sun came up again this morning as it has since God placed it in the sky just close enough to the earth to give us warm summers but far enough away that it would not burn us alive. Every day it rises in the East and sets in the West, a greater light to rule the day. How do we know it will rise again? How can we sleep in peace without a scientific certainty that the sun will be there again tomorrow? How do we find rest from all the problems that could possibly occur during that time when the earth around us is dark, and the sun is not shining directly upon our part of the creation?

We have a promise.

As long as the earth remains, there will be light and dark, hot and cold, wet and dry, seedtime and harvest. 

This is the bridge of promise over which we cross to realize the faithfulness of God’s word to us. 

The narrative of creation gives us a clue to that bridge of promise as the phrase, “The evening and the morning were the first day, the evening and the morning were the second day, the evening and the morning were the third day,” (author’s paraphrase, Genesis 1) is repeated for six days. First the darkness, then the light.

The world is going through the darkness and science tells us that it is going to get much darker before the light shines. And for those who don’t have the certainty of the sunrise or the promise of the scripture, I suppose that the darkness is all they see. They talk of depression, destruction, desperation, deception and all the fears the go along with darkness. But there is no actual measure for darkness.

Darkness is the absence of light. And there will be a sunrise.

One of the nice things about being over 70 is the experience of walking through several “dark to light” experiences and the realization that in just a relatively few years I get to see Jesus as that darkness of death gives way to the Son-Rise that knows no night. Fear is dispelled and life becomes one of the greatest adventures one can imagine. Awesome in His power, delicious in His presence, delightful in His promise is the One who set the sun in its place and the earth in its orbit, just close enough to give a summer tan but not close enough to destroy us all. Relatively limitless power controlled by a greater power. The Creation controlled by the Creator.

Light dispels darkness.

I too never thought I would live in a small town where police are now enforcing an edict to close all businesses. I thought I would always be able to go down to Joe’s and get a haircut. Never thought that senior citizens would have to get up before sunrise to get groceries to prevent us from either death by disease or death by the trampling herd.

It’s getting kind of dark out there. 

But, the sun came up again this morning.