How many here this morning besides me would admit that you do not like darkness? The reality is that when I was a child I feared the dark and I am still at 57 years old not fond of being in complete darkness. Why am I scared of the dark? It is because when I am in total darkness I cannot see where I am going, and I don’t have any sense of direction. Being in darkness also, causes me to feel as though I am powerless, and I have a feeling of hopelessness.
Pastor Bob Russell shared this:
About twenty years ago a house near the entrance of our subdivision kept their Christmas lights burning long into January, even though the Christmas season was long past. Even through the first of February those outside lights were burning every night. About the middle of February, I became a little bit critical and said, “You know, if I were too lazy to take my Christmas lights down, I think I’d at least turn them off at night.” But about the middle of March, a sign outside of their house explained why they’d left the lights on. It said simply, “Welcome home, Jimmy.” We learned that family had a son in Vietnam, and they had unashamedly left their Christmas lights on in anticipation of his return.
Lights are a symbol of hope. A person lost in a dark cave turns a corner and is relieved to see a ray of sunlight breaking through a crack. A person adrift on a life raft in the middle of the ocean at night is excited when he’s able to say, “I see the light of a ship on the horizon.”