It is often said that the night is darkest right before the dawn. The implication is that there will be a dawn.
Yet, what about those nights when there is no moon, the storm clouds obscure the stars, and the electricity goes dead? Not a sound stirs the darkness, and the world is as black as black can be. It presses in on us, and we feel the breath of life squeezed from our lungs.
Maybe it’s the loss of a child, and we become so focused on our grief that it is unbearable. Or betrayal, and the knife has cut too deeply. We are certain we cannot recover. Then there is that most awful time when something we’ve done in the past sneaks up behind us and hits us up beside the head, leaving us reeling with the knowledge that we have destroyed everything we have worked to achieve.
We have reached the blackest night, and we think there is no way out.
God’s Word tells us otherwise.
John 14:6 turns on the light of salvation.
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’ ”
John 6:53 invites us to assume the mantle of Christ.
“So Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.’ ”
Luke 10:25-28 gives us the example of love over law.
“And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, ‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’ He said to him, ‘What is written in the Law? How do you read it?’ And he answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.’ And he said to him, ‘You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.’ ”
Psalm 23:1-5 teaches us that in the worst of times, we have one who reaches out to us with compassion and understanding.
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.”
When the night closes in on us, God wants us to remember his love for us. Our eyes might be blinded to the light, but just as in the worst storm and the blackest night, the sun is still out there, even if we cannot see it.
When the storm clouds blow away, God is always there, right where he has always been, shining down on us, and waiting for us to look up to him.
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