Light Brings Life And Happiness

August 29, 2003

            My students looked forward to science class.  “Boys and girls, today we’ll begin our unit about ‘light.’  What is light?”

            Hands shot up all over the classroom. 

            “Something that makes us happy.”

            “Grandpa likes to sit in the sun.  It makes him feel good.”

            “If we didn’t have light we couldn’t see.”

            “These are all good answers,” I said to the children while picking up my plant.  “Look at this beautiful ivy.  It looks healthy and sturdy doesn’t it?  Its leaves are green and vibrant.  Let’s put this pot of ivy in the closet where it is dark and leave it for a few days.  Then we will open the closet door and bring it out into the classroom again.  What do you think we’ll see?”

            “It’ll be lonesome.”

            “It will be sad.”

            “It will feel lost.”         

            One by one the children protested, but I explained the experiment and they became eager to try it.  Each morning they pleaded for a peek as we continued our study of “light.”  On the third day I opened the closet door and removed the plant.

            “It looks sick!”

            “It makes me sad!”

            “It’s all droopy!

            I knew I had made my point when one student exclaimed, “Living things need light to live.”

            Children have such insights.  In reality they became my teacher.  We need the “Light” of God to live too.  God is light; in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5 NIV).  Knowing this is truly “something that makes you happy,” like my student said.  Sitting in the presence of the “Son” makes one feel good like my student’s grandpa.

            Walking in the light of Jesus enables the believer to see by faith, and that leads to a victorious life.  “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin”  (1 John 1:7 NIV).

            On the contrary, sin breeds in darkness.  Have you ever seen light in a shiny green cesspool?  Most crimes are committed in the dark.  Suicides increase in gloomy weather.  Cabin fever occurs in a long dreary winter.

            Without light, life cannot exist, physically or spiritually.  How we need the “Light” of a risen Savior.  “The way of the good person is like the light of dawn, growing brighter and brighter until full daylight.  But the wicked walk around in the dark; they can’t even see what makes them stumble” (Proverbs 4:18-19 NCV).  Thank God we can confess our sins and that brings them to the light.  Once the sin is exposed to the light, God graciously forgives.  Confessed sins are dispelled in the “light” of God’s love.

            The light of God sustains life.  Without it mankind has no hope

            Darkness can never overcome the light.  I’ve been delivered from darkness.

That’s why I put up my Christmas tree on Halloween.

            I celebrate the “Light!”