A Shaft of Light Penetrates the Darkness

Could it be any darker? The eyes strain to see the faintest of lights but to no avail. It is black darkness. You can’t tell whether your eyes are wide open or tightly closed – there’s no difference. There is no night-light plugged into the wall of your experience. You look towards the door hoping to see some light shining through the cracks, but you can’t.  Nothing. You’ve opened the window blinds and peered into the darkness but the twinkling stars aren’t shining and the moonbeams (stuff that poets write about) are nowhere to be seen. So much for poetry!

You checked the desk lamps and the ceiling light – the bulbs are burned out. There you sit in darkness. Now you recline on the flat of your back, peering into the black room all around you. A droplet of water trickles out of your left eye – you brush it away but then a few more appear out of nowhere – on both sides of your face. For some reason you can’t stop them. For some reason, you don’t even want to stop them, now that they are flowing. It’s called crying.

Is there any light?

“The entrance (opening) of Thy words giveth light…”

Psalm 119:130

When you crack open your Bible, think of it this way: a shaft of light will shine in.  Someone turns on the light in the hallway and now you can see it shining through the cracks of the door. Open the door and your room will brighten up. When we open the Word of God and allow it to shine into our experience, the dark thoughts that plague our minds will be diluted – if not vanish. The hard thoughts will soften and melt away. The thoughts of despair will be overtaken by hope. The confusion of the mind will give way to understanding because, why? Because the entrance, the opening, the unfolding of the Word of God to our hearts gives us light – gives us understanding.

Dear Child of God, your Bible is unlike any other book in the world. It’s even different than the commentaries written by theologians and godly teachers. Your Bible is alive! It may not be flipping open on its own or moving around on your desk as if it were magical. But it is the living Word of God and when we open its pages and thoughtfully read it, the living Word will do its unique work in our hearts. We may flip it shut because all of a sudden the living Word has touched a sore point in our lives or has awakened our conscience. We might set it down and change our positions, as we bend our knees in prayer. We might exclaim to ourselves: “Wow! That was good. That’s just what I needed. Now I will see things differently.”

Yes, it is alive and when we open the Word of God, we are bound to be affected by its light. To keep it closed is to cherish darkness.

When times are rough and the circumstances are brutal – then we should increase our intake of the Word of God. That means – we need to spend more time reading it on our knees then we normally do. Sadly, often we do the opposite. When we’re blinded by tears of discouragement or blindsided by a crisis, we snub our Bibles almost in a huff against God. But when we come to our senses and open its pages quietly and meditatively – we find once again the “entrance of Thy words giveth light.” Some of us are slow learners.

For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning,

that we through patience and

comfort of the scriptures

might have hope.

(Romans 15:4)

Did you allow the light of your Bible to shine into your experience yet today?