Reflection - Light Moments

By Rev Dr Clive W Ayre

In Isaiah 9:2 there are those familiar words, 'The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.' In similar vein, the Psalmist affirmed in Psalm 27:1:  'The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?' And as Matthew reported on the beginning of Jesus' ministry in Matthew 4:16, he again returned to that Isaiah passage: 'the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light.'

The season after Christmas is known as Epiphany; and epiphany comes from a Greek word which means 'appearing', or a manifestation. The light of God appears in Christ, irradiating our darkness, and bringing grace and purpose in our living. Light has been described as 'radiant energy'. In other words, it is warmth, energy, and life.

'The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light' – and that light shone in Jesus Christ.  You will recall those words at the opening of John's gospel: 'What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.'  That linking of life and light is no accident, and it applies equally in the physical and spiritual realms.

An artist painted a picture of a solitary man rowing his small boat across a stormy lake. It was night, and the churning waves beat against the tiny craft. But in this scene of an apparent pending midnight tragedy, the artist painted a lone star in the blackness. The oarsman had his eye on the star as he battled the angry sea. Beneath the picture the artist had inscribed the words, 'If I lose sight of that, I am lost.'  We might well identify ourselves in that picture. Even more, a boat is one of the most ancient images of the Church. But whether to the individual, or to the corporate identity of the Church, even of the nation, this is the message of hope. The key is to focus, not on the waves that buffet our boat, but on the lone star that says we will not walk in darkness but in the light of God.

There is another issue that we often face as we try to live in the light, and that is what we might call 'the dread of the familiar'. Sometimes even our faith can seem so ordinary and mundane. We have our devotions, we come to worship, but lights in the sky are rare. Yet however infrequent it may seem, for most of us, if we think about it, they do come.

The life of the spirit is never one of unrelieved brilliance. Sometimes we travel in overwhelming darkness, but we keep our eye on the star. Sometimes our world seems so very ordinary, but God rewards the faithful. Light moments of epiphany break through, and we walk on in renewed faith and confidence. Epiphany is a window through which the light of God is able to pour into our world, transmuting the ordinary into God's own rich glory.  When we are able to say, 'The Lord is my light and my salvation', we have the sight, the direction, and the energy to respond when we hear the call of Jesus – 'Follow me'.