Turn Off the Dark

By Martijn van Tilborgh

Unlike popular belief, darkness is not the opposite of light.

It is the absence of it.

Light, it seems, matters deeply to God.

Before God creates anything else, He creates light.

Before form, function, or structure, there is illumination.

The very first words God speaks in Scripture are simple and decisive:

"Let there be light."

And immediately, God declares that the light is good.

John seems to understand the significance of this when he opens his version of the Christmas story. Instead of angels or shepherds, John reaches all the way back to the beginning and uses one word to describe Jesus again and again.

Light.

Five times in his opening statements alone, Jesus is identified this way.

"In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind."

Jesus Himself doubles down on the claim.

"I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

But He does not stop there.

He turns the statement toward us and says something even more profound.

"You are the light of the world."

And then He commands us to let that light shine so that others may see.

Let that sink in.

And this is only scratching the surface.

There are over 235 references to light in the Bible.

So what is going on here?

Why does light matter so much?

What is light anyway?

The dictionary defines light as "the natural agent that stimulates sight and makes things visible."

In other words, light does not create reality.

It reveals it.

Light does not change what is there.

It changes what can be seen.

Which raises another question.

Does light actually alter truth, or does it simply reveal the truth that has been present all along?

Could it be that nothing was ever missing, only unseen?

Just because something cannot be seen does not mean it does not exist.

Christ did not come to invent a new reality.

He simply came to turn the light on.

To reveal what had always been true from the beginning.

That God is with us.

Has always been with us.

Will always be with us.

Emmanuel.

"And in Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it."

Darkness never stood a chance.