When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
John 8:12
I was just re-visiting last week’s “thought.” It just dawned on me there is one bug that doesn’t like light – the cockroach. So, that got me thinking about how those who “love the darkness” (cockroaches, spiritually speaking) respond when they are forced into the light? What happens to the sin-steeped soul that steps into THE LIGHT? I’m thinking I know, as there have been times (sorry to pop any naive bubbles) when I have tried to avoid the light from exposing my own sinful nature. I react very much like a cockroach and try to escape quickly into hiding once more. The dark “feels” much safer. At least, during those times, that is my perception. If I’m a cockroach, I don’t love the light.
So, I have been drawn back to John 8 asking the Lord for a little more “light” on this dilemma. Sometimes it’s shocking to me how God answers those kinds of questions. Do you know what story precedes this passage? The woman caught in adultery! After picking my jaw up off the floor when I realized this fact, I began to ask myself why this story, right here, sandwiched in this place? Think about it. This woman with no name was caught in the very act of adultery. She was drug from the bed in a darkened room out into the daylight to stand before the SONLIGHT. There she stood. Naked. Exposed. From the inside out. Whatever Jesus wrote in the dirt, caused the others to run for cover (maybe he exposed the “cockroachedness” of their sinful hearts), but the woman stayed. She could have run, but I’m thinking she was tired of running. Sometimes, even amidst the painfulness of the exposure, we’re glad we finally got caught. We’re glad we can stop running. Somehow, there in the face of THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD, she saw mercy.
“Woman, where are your accusers?”
“Gone.”
“Neither do I accuse you. Go and sin no more.”
The very thing that we shy away from when we are in sin (Light) becomes the very thing that now covers our sin (Light). Who would have thought?! Only in the way the mind of God works, could we ever find the irony of total healing. If we don’t step into the light, there will be no answer for our hidden shame. If we don’t step into the light, we cannot be covered. If we don’t let the light expose and cover, we will not find freedom to “go and sin no more.” Victory is only found in the LIGHT.
The LIGHT is not to be feared…but treasured. Not to scurry away from into hidden dark corners of our hearts, but to run toward as fast as our feet can carry us. GO! Sin no more.
(A) He is THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD + (B) I am covered and set free. = (C) I can live life to the full in that freedom, no longer a cockroach (maybe a lightning bug?)!