Scared of the dark?

Lucy lived with her mom and dad and three little sisters on a dairy farm. Her dad had to get up really early every morning to milk the cows. Because he had to be up so early, he was very strict about not being disturbed at night. Lucy loved her dad and knew that he loved her, too, so she always tried hard to please him.

The house on the farm was old and unusual. Upstairs there was just one big bedroom with a couple of smaller bedrooms off to the sides. Lucy shared one of those little rooms with her sister. Their doorway was one step up from the main room and was right beside the stairs. If the children were careless, they sometimes fell down the steep stairs. This had happened to Lucy a couple of times, and it was not fun.

One night Lucy woke up to use the bathroom. She didn't want to wake up her sister or risk disturbing her dad by turning on a light. The night was so black that she thought about waiting until morning, but she really had to go.

What would you have done? Lucy thought about what to do. She knew that there wasn't anything in the darkness itself to be afraid of. Darkness was only the absence of light. She knew what the room looked like in the daytime. So, she decided to try to find her way in the dark. Lucy was happy to find her way to the bathroom where she could turn on the light.

But on the way back, the night looked even blacker and closer than before. In that blackness Lucy couldn't see the step into her room. She knew it had to be there, but whenever she tried to put her foot on it, it just wasn't there. Lucy became more and more frustrated. And then she fell down the stairs.

Lucy's mom ran to pick her up and comfort her. She reminded Lucy that God was right there, keeping her safe. Lucy felt better immediately. She knew that God was always with her - even in the dark. In fact, He had been right there the whole time. That's why she had been brave enough to get up in the first place. And that's why she didn't feel hurt now. But still, Lucy and her mother decided to pray.

As they turned wholeheartedly to God to hear what He had to tell them, they found these helpful ideas from the Bible: "Whither shall I go from thy spirit?... If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee" (Psalms 139:7, 11, 12).

Lucy could understand that in Spirit - which is God - it was always like daytime. She had learned in Sunday School that "in him we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28). She saw that she was always in the light of Spirit - whether it was day or night. That meant she could see everything she needed to see and be able to move confidently wherever she had to go.

From then on Lucy was much more confident in the dark. When she had to get up for the bathroom, she remembered "the darkness hideth not [anything] from thee" and would find the step into her room without trouble. She never fell down the stairs again.

When Lucy went camping with her cousins, she wasn't afraid to go beyond the light of the campfire to the tent, because she remembered that she could never be out of God's presence. And when Lucy had an early morning paper route, she was grateful for God's light, which warned her of tree roots or rocks before she could stumble on them.

Lucy is grown up now and still moves around in the dark almost as easily as if it were daytime. She continues to know that Spirit supplies her with all the intelligence and confidence she needs and that the light of God's presence shines on all His children - including you.

God is light,
and in him
is no darkness at all.

I John 1:5