“Keep your face always toward the sunshine — and shadows will fall behind you.”
~ Walt Whitman
Issues involving light and dark have been written about throughout the ages. Light and dark are very concerning to most children. There are many who are afraid of the dark and need to have some kind of night light or light spilling into their room in order to sleep. Night has been depicted as frightening or dangerous. The night has often been filled with a variety of creatures in stories.
The image of dark has been used to convey sadness, isolation, fear, or death. Keeping people in the dark is a phrase used to mean that someone will be uninformed. For many, dark belongs to the realm of the enemy. We speak about those who walk in the darkness of sin and death.
Light, on the other hand, has been used to portray truth, love, happiness, joy, and warmth to name a few. We speak about Jesus as “the light” and we encourage people to walk in the light. We tell people who are dying to wait for the light and, when they see it, to go toward it confidently because love and happiness await them.
If the light is so strong, so healing, and so powerful, why do so many people shun the light and walk in the dark? The more that we embrace the darkness of sin, the harsher the glare of the light of goodness, the light of Christ. It would be a tragedy if sin so consumed us that we began to shun and then avoid the light of Jesus. We were made to be people of the light, not of the dark. We were made to shine the light of the Lord into our world. We were called to share the light with those who are on the fringes of dark and who are in jeopardy of being consumed by the shadows.
Becoming consumed by the shadows can happen quite innocently. This may seem like a strange comparison; but, I remember when I was much younger. I would go outside and engage in the favorite pastime of many a toddler: stomping on my shadow. I would love to jump on the shadow, to try to pin down an arm or a leg. It was a lot of fun. However, if you think about the analogy, the more that I spent looking at the shadow, the more my back was to the light.
That happens when we allow sin to overtake us. We put our back to the light so long that we eventually step into the shadows and begin to live a life of sin. Let this meditation be a wake up call to each and every one of us. We should not live in the shadows or in complete darkness. Rather, we should embrace Christ and always walk in His light.
FAITH ACTION: Do all that you can to walk in the light of God’s love today. In addition, share that light with someone who is in darkness.