Of Darkness and Light - jan 1st

Genesis 1,2 and Luke 1

Genesis 1:4 - And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from darkness.

Luke 1:78,79 - ...the Sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

There's a sense of heaviness and a taste of death in the second verse of the first chapter of Genesis as the earth lay in darkness... formless and void. And such was the state of humanity prior to the coming of the Christ. There had been life before for man before, and light, and the very breath of God within him. But that was scarcely a memory, a topic of debate among the learned. Man now lived in the constant fear of death, beating his way through life as he stumbled about in the darkness.

There were those who held on to ancient promises, refusing to give up hope though they knew not when, where, or how. They stared hard into text, seeing only a flicker of light in the distance, but still they believed.

Oh how tragic this terestial landscape must have been to the inhabitants of heaven. The Father had separated light from darkness, for the light was good. Yet man had stumbled into the darkness and was mired there.

But now the time had come again for a new sunrise on the earth. The Father sent John into the darkness much like He had sent His Spirit so many centuries before to prepare the way for a new beginning.

Once again there would be light for humanity. For to walk in light is to walk in peace, while to walk in the darkness is to live in fear.

It is a simple matter to become enveloped by the darkness. For this world we live in is a dark place. It is hard at times not to become spotted by its diseases. It is easy to abandon hope, though we may not admit it even to ourselves. But hope will be manifested by the way we live our lives, displayed in every choice we make.

We must be like those prior to the coming of the Messiah that not seeing, still chose to believe, still held on to hope. They saw the coming of new day and believed, we too have been promised a new day.

Father,
I desire to live in Your light. Remove the darkness that has plagued my life for so long. Let my life be a message of hope to those in the darkness, rather then a warning to those in the light.