The Light.

"This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all."

(1 John 1:3)

Many people have a thing about darkness. We often avoid it at all cost. Kids, by and large, are afraid of it. We have all kinds of lights to help illuminate our lives - even on our cell phones!

We have a softub spa in our backyard. Actually, it's tucked away in a corner, just off of our lanai (porch). Jody and I use it almost every night. It has a cool light feature that can switch between 10 options of colors (or color patterns). For the first portion of our time with the spa, we had a certain lighting setting we used every night. It was on a 30 min. timer, so if we stayed in the spa longer than 30 min. it turned off. It was kind of nice to just sit in the darkness and look at the stars. So eventually we started not even turning the light on at all. Of course, when we first go outside, it takes our eyes a while to adjust to the darkness. But it's really not dark. Not totally, at least. There's always light - even on a "new" moon (i.e. no moon visible!). It's amazing how the smallest light (like the stars) can pierce the darkness.

The author of 1 John talks a lot about light and darkness. He equates God to LIGHT! "And in him there is no darkness at all." No matter how dark our lives may seem at times, God's presence with us brings light. HOPE... GRACE... PEACE... PATIENCE... ENDURANCE... LOVE... it's all a gift from God to us in the midst of life's challenges. God's presence in our world is illuminating! Any place we see LIGHT, God is there. Period.

Be not afraid. Light is everywhere.