Light and Dark
According to the creation story in Genesis, God first created the heaven and the earth. He then began to fine-tune and furnish the earth for its’ future inhabitants.
After that, the earth is said to have been without form, and void, with darkness over the face of the deep. I have a mental picture of what I think this might have looked like, like the middle of the ocean on a dark night; the deep, grey waters relatively calm against the black sky. Except this can’t be right.
I’ve been deep inside Pettyjohn’s Cave in north Georgia a few times, and I always take the time to turn off my flashlight and experience the darkness. True darkness. The kind of dark that your eyes never adjust to, where you literally can’t see your hand 2 inches in front of your face. Dark that is completely void of light.
It must have been this kind of darkness that Moses was writing about. Darkness this thick doesn’t allow for grey waters, because grey cannot exist without at least a little bit of light. Darkness this complete doesn’t allow for pictures, mental or otherwise.
But then God spoke.
God spoke and the world was forever changed, never to be the same again. God spoke and there was light; light without a sun to shine it or a moon to reflect it, just spoken light. God beheld this light and judged that it was good.
Since that time islands and mountains have formed, volcanoes and earthquakes have modified the landscape, and massive pieces of land and ice have fallen into the sea. Yet no change has ever been as drastic as when light chased away the dark. No change has ever impacted so many people over such a long period of time.
There are no two things more opposite than light and dark. We use phrases like “they are like night and day” to contrast, for instance, siblings who are totally different. Night and day are different, sure, but they are stilled ruled by light, just a greater and a lesser.
We use “black and white” to explain a situation that is clearly defined, with no grey area in between. But the very fact that black and white are in some way compatible, that they work together to create something new, shows us that they are not entirely contradictory, and certainly not as contradictory as light and dark.
“And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”
Darkness cannot even begin to understand the light. It can’t grasp or take hold of it. Darkness flees at the slightest glimmer; it must.
Now with these thoughts in mind, carefully read the following verse.
“For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:”
All throughout the Bible you will find the Bible writers drawing from the creation story to teach spiritual truths. The Apostle Paul here has used the universal language of light and dark to once again illustrate change, but this time an inward change. The change at hand here is the one that happens within a person who has entered into relationship with God through Christ; a person who wasn’t just in darkness, but who was darkness, but now is light.
Millions, I suppose, have tried to articulate this change. It’s hard to put words on something that completely transcends language, and I’ve said many times that it’s better felt than told. But I do like telling it, or at least trying to, and I can think of no better way to do that than to say it was like being called out of darkness and into His marvelous light (1 Pet. 2:9).
God bless!
