Encountering Light
This summer the theme at Lake View Camps is “Be the Light.” So I have been contemplating light and darkness a lot lately. One scripture I have come to appreciate more deeply is Ephesians 5:8
“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light—”
It is not just that darkness was in us, or that now we have the light in us, it says we WERE darkness and now we ARE light in the Lord. Amen! What a transformation has occurred through faith in Jesus Christ our Lord. Jesus says it this way in 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.”’
I need to hear Jesus say this sometimes when I get down from battling self-doubt and sin, or from seeing how evil hurts so many people in our world. I need a light. We need a light. The whole world NEEDS a light. Jesus. Jesus is the light of the world and if we follow Him we can experience new life.
Another thing I have done this summer, ever since Pastor Kent taught the staff on his passion for poetry, is write some poetry of my own. I have written some about fishing.
Anticipation
Set the hook, you’ve got a bite
Adrenaline pumps
Another is remembering sitting with my dad on the porch or dock of a lake cabin we rented for the week for family vacation. We were up before everyone else, drinking coffee and telling stories.
Smell the coffee brew
Creaking dock, smell wormy morn
Tell stories; miss dad
The poetry brings me back to the light of Jesus because I have been trying to reflect on the Bible while writing poetry. I was thinking about the man born blind that was healed by Jesus and my own spiritual blindness when I wrote:
Useless, lightless eyes
Looking, seeking, desperate
Groping in the dark
I think that captures the helpless and hopeless feeling of despair I feel at times without God. Then when we first encounter light it can be overwhelming.
Bewildered, blinded
Caught off-guard, confusing light
Disorienting
Blinding, burning light
Too holy and pure for me
Exposed, pathetic
Light purifies, that is why sometimes the light of Jesus makes me feel exposed. However, His light is good and His work in me, though painful, brings health and healing.
Warm, comforting light
Melts a soul frozen in pain
Son’s heat like spring thaw
Jesus’ love is light that brings healing to my wounded soul. I need Him to thaw me and make me warm enough to be able to love others in His name. Ezekiel 37 tells of a vision God gives the prophet of a valley of dry bones coming back to life. This is the meaning of the vision:
11 Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’”
This is the hope we have too! That through faith in Jesus Christ we can go from dead in our sins to ALIVE in Him! Just as the stone was rolled a way, and Jesus rose from the grave, we too are born again into the family of God. While this is a beautiful truth my heart still ask God this question:
Purifying light,
Plumb this foul, festering corpse
Can these dry bones live?
God’s answer to me and you from Ezekiel 37 is a resounding, “YES”!
Steve Poole
Pastor of Youth & Young Adults
