The Light By Which We See

John 8:12. “Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world.
Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.’”

When the sun sets and night comes, many people turn on the lights. When my wife and I leave home in the evening, she will say, “Let’s leave on a couple of lights to welcome us home.” At bedtime, my younger son would say, “Dad, leave the hall light on, and crack my door.” Streets and sidewalks are lit so we don’t have to drive or walk in total darkness. We need and depend on the lights outside us. But what about the light within?

The thing about light is that we don’t actually see it. Rather, light is the means by which we see all the other things in the world. If Jesus is the light of the world, then he is the means by which we see the world, one another, and ourselves. He is the means of our awakening, illumination, enlightenment, knowing, and consciousness.

I wonder how often have we have walked in the darkness of fear, not knowing, not seeing, and unconsciousness? How much of life have we missed because we were in the dark, unenlightened and sleepwalking our way through life?

*Originally written for and published by Forward Day by Day.