The Light of Love

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed. But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.” (John 3:16-17, 19-21)

Sometimes we’ve lived in darkness so long that we’ve become used to it. Sometimes the darkness is from fear, not because our works are evil. But even when the darkness is that of fear, only God’s truth, the light, can dispel it. We can only experience healing in the light. And God provides our healing in stages because when you’ve been in the dark for so long, the light is blinding. It is overbearing and causes the one in darkness to shrink away from it. God doesn’t want us to shrink away from him so he heals us according to our ability to receive his gift of light. He understands our fear so he, ever so gently, reveals his healing light to us. He, ever so gently, uncovers our neglected wounds that are infected with lies and shame. He pours out the healing ointment of love that is the only remedy for our woundedness. He binds up our wounds and offers support until we are able to once again stand on our own.  Our wounds heal and become scars. Our scars reveal where we have been but they don’t have to predict where we go. For awhile we may move back and forth from the darkness to the light. I know for myself, sometimes the healing process was hard and I would revert back to my old ways. I would step back into the darkness because that is what I was familiar with and comfortable with. The journey toward healing requires a lot of courage and trust because there is so much unknown. On the journey we become children of the light and our works are clearly seen as done for God’s glory.