10-25-2023

Good Morning All,

         John 8:12; “Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

    For a short time in my life, I thought everything was perfect; you see I owned a bus.  We painted it green, took out half of the seats and my youngest son and two of his friends put a couch in the back.  They needed a couple of hammers and a saw, but they got it in.  There wasn’t much in life better than driving that bus.  I would take the baseball team on the bus.  One night we had to turn around in someone’s soybean field because of a shortcut that didn’t pan out, but we had fun.  In the fall of the year, I would haul some of the parents to the football games.  It was on one of those trips that life got interesting.

    Hardly anybody believed in my bus.  It was old but it was reliable, mostly.  We went to the most far away game and we were returning home.  As we were about thirty miles from home, the exhaust cracked, and it made a loud noise at midnight.  Then as we were about twenty miles from home, the headlights stopped working.  It was really dark.  For a little while, I kept up with a pickup that was driving ahead and “sharing” his headlights, but he drove faster than I did and soon we were trying to drive in the dark.  We made it to one of our destinations, tried a quick fix (didn’t work) and then pondered life.  It was finally agreed that the person who we let off would drive to the next stop and be our lights.  Then at the next stop we would trade again.  We made it home, safely, and we all have a story to tell.

   Attempting to do things in the dark rarely works.  There are probably very few parents alive who have not stepped on at least one Lego block in the middle of the night.  You just can’t see.  Even if you “know” where everything is supposed to be, it rarely is.  That doesn’t even factor in the left-out toys or the shoes or boots that are left out.  The door that is supposed to be open is closed, a Chair moved; it doesn’t matter, if you try to walk in the dark; you will get hurt.

   This is why Scriptures uses the metaphor about Jesus being the light.  He is the light of the world.  He shows us the way and, just as important, he gives light to the dangers and pitfalls of the world.  We know this because God has shown us that in order to live in complete contentment we must live according to his will.  When we don’t, we are walking in the dark and we will get hurt.  In our life what gets hurt is our relationship with God.  When we walk in the dark, we do not see so we are easily misled and misguided.  We can end up where we don’t want to be.

    Jesus is the light.  Life comes from him and through him.  This life gives us the light to see him clearly as our Lord and Savior.  His light shows us what true peace is.  His light shows us how a true relationship works.  His light guides us down our path of life into his marvelous eternity of joy.  Follow the light.

Father of light, you sent Jesus to be the light of the world.  Protect us from the dark and give to us the knowledge of our salvation.  Be with those who are struggling in the dark and bring them into your light.  In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret