I was finally able to get back to my computer and continue my work. I clicked the mouse and nothing happened; it was still a blank dark screen. I prayed about it. I tried again, nothing, and then I began to panic. You know, pushing those buttons over and over again expecting it to work the next time. It didn’t. I have been having nothing but problems with this PC since I bought it, did it finally crash? I checked the mouse; I tried everything I could think of and still nothing. My panic began to grow. I sent up another prayer.

It was then that one of the kittens jumped on the desk and ran across the keyboard. That’s it, I declared to myself. I had left my computer open and unguarded; a very bad habit when you have cats. I hit the brightness button. Everything came back to life; back into view. It was there the whole time that I panicked. I just could not see it.

What is the hold that the darkness and the unseen have upon us? Even as an adult I fear the dark world outside. I fear what could be hiding in it. We are told in verse five that God is life, God is light, and nothing in the dark, or even the darkness itself, can win the tiniest hold over the light; over God. God is all powerful, God is in full control, and yet we panic at the mention of what may be in the dark. Yet nothing has changed; it is just beyond our visual perception. Jesus is the light of the world. He was so even before the world was formed by his hands at his will. Is the darkness only an imaginary thing we create in our own fear and shame? If darkness is the lack of light, then the dark is the lack of Jesus in our lives.

Verse 10 always saddens me. It reads: ‘But although he made the world, the world didn’t recognize him when he came.’ How do we miss the light of the world? How do we look right past the one who loves us so much? How do we allow the dark to take a hold in our lives? Even though we did not recognise him, and even though we rejected him, he still came into our world to remove the blinders from our eyes. As the blinders are removed, we begin to see Jesus for who he is. He has been with us the whole time. Jesus never left us as we wandered around with our hands over our eyes. Have you ever played hide and seek with a very small child? They are very bad at hiding. They think that we cannot see them if they cannot see us. Jesus never takes his eyes off us, and when we cannot see him, he removes the blinders; he turns up the brightness and reveals to us his presence.

Jesus reveals to us our condition. Jesus forgives us despite our rejection. Jesus reveals to us the Father who loves us and who desires us to be his children – his beloved (vv. 12,18). How comforting it was to realise that the brightness was turned down on my computer screen, and that everything was still in working order. How comforting it is that despite our blindness, the Father, Spirit, and Son still love us and are constantly by our side removing the dark in our lives and revealing his presence and his love for us.

Local congregation:
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