Let in the light
As this is being written on a gloomy, rainy Monday, a song sparrow has lighted on a wild rosebush outside my window and has burst into song. The rain and lack of sun have clearly not dampened the little bird's spirits.
In our lives, even if clouds of fear or sickness or loneliness seem all-encompassing, we have reason to maintain our joy. The light of God's love and care is always shining, though perhaps temporarily hidden, and we can let that healing light into our thought and experience.
On a sunny day when we raise the shades, the sunlight pours in. It doesn't have to be invited in or pushed in. And what about the darkness? It vanishes when the light streams in. So the darkness of fear and suffering vanishes as spiritual light floods our consciousness.
Comparisons of light and darkness are frequently made in the Bible. The Scriptures also refer to God as light. The Psalmist declared, ''The Lord is my light and my salvation.'' n1 And in the New Testament we read, ''God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.'' n2
n1 Psalms 27:1.
n2 I John 1:5.
Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, makes this pertinent statement: ''We are sometimes led to believe that darkness is as real as light; but Science affirms darkness to be only a mortal sense of the absence of light, at the coming of which darkness loses the appearance of reality. So sin and sorrow, disease and death, are the suppositional absence of Life, God, and flee as phantoms of error before truth and love.'' n3
n3 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 215.
When we let God into our lives, His light does dispel the darkness of mortal thought, or the ''carnal mind'' referred to by Paul. This false sense of mind, which would have us believe we're mere mortals, separated from our creator, subject to chance, sickness, and decline, must be exposed to the light of truth and love if we're to find lasting harmony. As we put up the shades in thought, the cleansing, healing rays of God's love for us dissolve mental darkness and the suffering it causes.
How often do we have a gloomy day with no sun, with problems involving family , business relationships, or the various forms of sin and disease? Are discordant conditions more real than darkness? Does God support negative situations?
If God is Light, and the one infinite, supreme power, as the Bible declares, His light, His goodness, must exclude the darkness of evil. But in order to prove this, to take advantage of His life-supporting, life-satisfying goodness, we must do something. We must raise the mental shades to allow the Christ, God's healing light, into our thinking. We do this through humble prayer and through living the teachings of the Bible, especially those of our Way-shower, Christ Jesus. Then the rays of divine Love bring encouragement, harmony, regeneration, and healing.
Jesus and the prophets proved that the light of Love and Truth, of God Himself, brings about healing. They had faith - moreover, conviction - that ''the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword.'' n4 Today that same trust and conviction is needed to bring about healing. We need to trust God's continuous presence and might to bring good into our lives. Only good, only that which is the outcome of God, is legitimate and real, regardless of appearances to the contrary.
n4 Hebrews 4:12.
''Now are we the sons of God,'' n5 the Bible declares. God loves us, His sons and daughters, and we can gratefully acknowledge that fact by trusting Him and letting in the light of His healing power.
n5 I John 3:2.
DAILY BIBLE VERSE The Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light. Isaiah 60:19
