Hunkered Down Devotion

John 12:35-36 (Voice)
Jesus: 35 Light is among you, but very soon it will flicker out. Walk as you have the light, and then the darkness will not surround you. Those who walk in darkness don’t know where they are going. 36 While the light is with you, believe in the light; and you will be reborn as sons and daughters of the light.
After speaking these words, Jesus left the people to go to a place of seclusion.

Jesus is the light of the world.  Calling on these words from Jesus, Paul in his letter to the church in Ephesus (Eph. 5:8) and his first letter to the church in Thessalonica (1Thes 5:5) calls on us to be children of the light.  Paul admonishes those churches to act like children of the light, not children of the dark.  

I like the sound of that.  I want to be a ‘child of the light’.  I want to walk in the light, so that darkness doesn’t surround me.  I am a son of the light.  Great.  Wonderful.  But what does that mean?  

We can make these things more complicated than they are and, in fact, we often to just that. But here I think while following through on this mandate is a tall task, what it looks like is pretty simple and clear.  Jesus is the light of the world, and to walk in the light means to follow the path of Jesus.  Jesus is the light of the world, and to believe in him is to believe in that light and to be transformed by it.  

Louis Brandeis popularized the familiar phrase, ‘sunlight is the best disinfectant’.  Interestingly for our purposes that is only the first half of his quote.  The second half continues: ‘and electric light the best policeman’.  

Brandeis was talking about the power of (relatively new) electric streetlight to pierce the darkness, provide safety, and protection.  This is the kind of effect that Jesus can have on our lives when we allow him access.  The light of the world cleanses our sin-sick souls, heals the infected wounds of our hearts, and baptizes us in the perfect light of God’s unwavering love, grace, and mercy.  

Laid bare before the healing and purifying light of the world, we are transformed into the new creations that Christ claims us to be.  Walking in the way of Jesus, following in his pattern of life in this world: sacrificial loved poured out on all in acts of love and service, not only are we protected from the darkness, but we can become reflections of the light ourselves, so that others around us might see and know the source of this light and love.
 
Sharing God’s Love, 
Chip  

Prayer:  You are the light of the world.  Shine in us.  Cleanse us, make us the new creations, born of light, that you have called us to be.  Amen.