The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light.
—Isaiah 9:2
Darkness! I experienced it when I was eight years old: 750 feet underground in Carlsbad Caverns, it was total darkness! Terrifying. I pictured a plunge into the Bottomless Pit. Gulp! Getting out of the cavern into the light was breathe-again relief for this eight-year-old.
Isaiah spoke of “people walking in darkness [who] have seen a great light” [in the distance] (Is 9:2). John’s gospel opens announcing that “The true light . . . was coming into the world” (Jn 1:9). Both were pointing to the light that was to come. We, thankfully, live in a time when the light has come.
Looking at our world through the lens of anxiety, we see darkness. Come out of the cavern and see the light. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (Jn 1:5).
In him there is no darkness.