“The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.”

— John 1:9,  NIV

Have you ever been afraid of the dark? Perhaps as a child you feared that monsters lurked in your bedroom, just waiting for the lights to go out. Or maybe as an adult you fear that people with evil intentions hide in the shadows, ready to attack.

Dangers do lurk in darkness. I refer not to “things that go bump in the night,” but to very real dangers which exist in the dark. After all, darkness is the domain of the “Prince of Darkness,” who hates the Light and does all he can to keep people from coming to the Light.

Many of the most dramatic, compelling, and illuminating stories found in the Bible took place at night. It was night when the Sodomites beat upon Lot’s doors and demanded his two angelic visitors to molest. It was night when David looked upon the form of Bathsheba bathing upon the rooftop below, then called her to his presence and committed the sin of adultery.

But the darkest “night” this world has ever seen took place at midday on Calvary. In that darkness, the noon that became midnight, humankind’s sin extinguished the Light of the World. Christ endured in body and soul the penalty, pain, and anguish which we so rightly deserve for our sinfulness.

But darkness couldn’t extinguish the Light forever. Isaiah foretold the day when the “people who walked in darkness [would see] a great light.” That great Light is Jesus Christ, whom the Bible calls the Light of the World. He promises to give us the light of everlasting day if we will yield our hearts to Him. Jesus Christ is the sun of our souls, and when He comes into the darkness of our hearts, He brings a Light which forever lightens our lives and gives us purpose. And when our time comes, Christ will take us to our everlasting home, and in that great day, we will discover there is no night there.

Because of Christ’s sacrifice, you need not fear the darkness. Today rejoice in Christ’s everlasting Light, the Light that extinguishes darkness this day and for eternity.

“When He came, there was no light.
When He left, there was no darkness.”
Anonymous