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Light or Dark
People loose in the night, without a legal purpose, bother me. It is written that when Jesus came into the world, as John 3 relates, it was a time when “people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil, hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed.” It has not left the scene even now 2021 years later.
 Of course in those days there was no electricity and people could easily hide in darkness or count on a tiny candle or a moon light to get them where they wanted to go. Imagine what it was like - when the sun went down, until a moon came up, there was no light unless there was a fire or a candle that would burn until it was no more. People who today truly camp out in the hills and mountains of our land know how dark darkness can be. And how relieving and beautiful a sky scattered with stars and a moving full moon can be as they toss a bit of white light into one’s hardly-there shadow.
In modern times, the extreme options of darkness and light are enormous. In the deepest of darkness, there is always some light, be it dim, powerful, colored or electronic, kerosene or saber or even fireflies. The trouble is how one uses or abuses light. At night when I turn off the television (which lights up the whole apartment or room it seems), there are about a half dozen little green, blue or white lights around the room on the walls for internet, TVs, computers, printers, cell phones, all things that are plugged into the wall. You can almost read a book by them at midnight. It’s like there is no pure darkness.
But darkness has its negativity. It’s in the attitude and lifestyle of humans who want to party or violate laws, to abuse and enjoy sex and violence, to rob and steal and kill. Those kinds of things soar in the system of fraternities at universities or in hotel rooms of athletes on the road. It is the hour of the most dangerous work for our police force which is required to confront most crimes in the dark with only a flashlight or that scary blue light twirling from their cars.
But then there are the common folk who, maybe after a day’s work, re-dress and enter a world of darkness where evil hangs off the walls, and men and women seduce each other, and criminals step out into the street to rob, steal, kill, and disrupt whatever is high on their menus for that night, charged up with drugs. It’s the time when sex becomes a god and married folk escape from their vows and look for something that makes them feel good, full of power, and important although they are nothing afterward but the same person they were at mid-day.
Nighttime is when bats fly, and how many diseases have bats inaugurated whether in caves or out hanging on the trees. It’s also time when the owl hoots or the tiger or cheetah crawls up into a solid tree to sleep in peace until they see a prey below and decide to grab it for dinner. Darkness can be dangerous - even though the moon - which is female - be it a rising or falling one, rejoices in a bright white circle surrounded by stars scattered across the sky, those winter glorious balls of light that seem to sit on the edge of the sea, and it is almost a game when the sun passes by planets and moons to darken the universe for a minute eclipse. At night, airplanes fill the sky because nighttime is the best time to get from one continent to another so clients wake up refreshed in the morning. At night, murder is more apt to sneak in unless someone is trying to assassinate a leader when light is needed to shoot from a far distance.
And who living in Memphis, forgets how Elvis Presley, due to his extraordinary fame, rented movie houses or fairgrounds or restaurants in the middle of the night so as not to be overwhelmed or attacked by fans wanting his autograph or photographs. He had no privacy because of his fame and the abuse by paparazzi. The older one gets, the more one knows that darkness is dangerous stuff and the place to be is not out in bars, or streets, or neighborhoods where anything can happen - and people can get away with whatever they want to do because no one can really see who they are or why they do what they do.
The sun rises somehow, shining somewhere every day - sometimes it’s covered or blurred by rain clouds ranging from white to dark black depending on the storm arising, but still that light comes through. Daytime assures plants and animals that they will get the light needed to keep them healthy. Most animals have some special vision so they can get places in the night, but still they stop and rest. Sunlight is important to humans to produce Vitamin D, to keep the composition of our blood balanced, and releases endorphins or happy hormones in our bodies. This gives us energy, can relieve pain and unleash happiness.
Surely, when day is done, when the sun has been scorching all day long, when the days labor has been tedious and one needs to blow out in some way or reason, dinner is on the table, or needs to be cooked to be put on that table, then there is darkness outside. Restaurants and private clubs thrive when darkness comes and people don’t want to eat at home, so have a place to go where someone else does the cooking, and they can escape their children. That’s okay but when the whiskey, wine and beer, drugs and who knows what are pulled out and poured out then things can get rabid.
Night means dark - horror films are always in dark ugly monster houses with little light, and lightening pounding its arrow to the earth to scare those uncomfortable in the dark. When the lights go out, which happen often to our house in Uruguay, we hear things we never saw since, like most, we keep TV on till the eyes won’t stay open anymore. Have you ever tried to sleep without the TV on in these modern times? Silence and darkness without cell phones, where at least some light shines 24-7, are frightening.
I often wonder is there darkness in heaven? Will there be day and night? Will anyone have to fear the darkness? Do we live in a world of dark meaninglessness and chaos, or a world of promised hope and life in Jesus Christ who was The Light of the world? St. Peter said: “Those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”
St. John firmly declares that the light shines in darkness (do you realize how much a tiny candle with light can eliminate a large space?) and the darkness has not overcome it. When God shouted out “Let there be light,” the beginning of us was launched. Now it may have taken a while to get to us, but the chaos of nothingness was shattered when the glorious light exploded in the first morning of creation. It was and is a light, not made by the sun, because it came from the mouth of God, who gave us His Son Jesus, who was not the first light. God was that. Jesus His Son is continually the light of the world and has been from the beginning, even before the sun. The son beat out the sun.
Jonathan Edward, 18th century theologian, said that “the church is like the moon It reflects the light of the sun and is even given authority to rule over the night.” The moon, which we consider female, is always looking over her children and spouse, and the stars give light in darkness. So the pie is cooked and delicious. Darkness and light together can be hopeful if the children of God would stop their rabid and abusive and violent attitudes and activities. If they don’t, I fear they chances to see the House of God will be negative since they are apt to be in the fires of hell. God Bless.
~ Rev
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audrey@audreytaylorgonzalez.com
www.audreytaylorgonzalez.com
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