Open to the light

Lily Cathcart January 09, 2020 0 0

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John 1: 1-13 (NIVUK)

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

In this well loved passage John is talking about Jesus being the light of the world. That light, he says as his Gospel goes on, is not just to shine at the beginning of the world or to only those who met him on earth and heard the witness of his coming, but to all, in whatever dark place we find ourselves. The people Jesus knew on earth were indeed in a dark place, a place of subjugation under a power they had not chosen. Jesus came to help them see the light and to in turn reflect that light to others.

Light reflects over and over until it shows us things we could never have otherwise seen. John’s confidence in Jesus is just one reflection of God’s light bringing hope into our lives, even in the moments where we would prefer not to see more clearly. In those and in all moments we can ask the Spirit to come alongside us and remind us that God’s vision and light are stronger than anything that the light might uncover.

PRAYER: 

God of light,
You sent Jesus to help people living in darkness
You send your Spirit to us now in the same way.
Help us not to close our eyes to the light you bring, whatever hard things it illuminates.
Amen.