No darkness at all

A leading point that Christian Science sets forth for the world is the fact there is not a presence or force that exists besides God. All that genuinely is in existence is God and God’s action, or outcome. “Know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the Lord, and there is none else,” says the Bible (Isaiah 45:6).

Darkness isn’t a substance or element in addition to light; it’s always simply the absence of light. In any room, there aren’t two switches on the wall – a light switch and also a “dark” switch. We can’t walk into a bright room with sunshine streaming through the windows and then switch on the dark!

Could it be said that evil, like darkness, has no tangible substance? Whether it appears as selfishness, hatred, illness, injustice, sin, or injury, it actually is a belief in God’s absence – a false mental impression of God’s nonexistence. The divine Truth and Love that is God is inextinguishable; uncontested. Truth illuminates human consciousness, effectively freeing us from a false belief in the darkness of evil. “Truth and Love enlighten the understanding, in whose ‘light shall we see light;’ and this illumination is reflected spiritually by all who walk in the light and turn away from a false material sense,” explains the Monitor’s founder, Mary Baker Eddy (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 510).

We don’t need to switch on the light of spiritual reality; in prayer, we mentally open up to it. The Bible states simply, “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (I John 1:5). That’s right: No darkness at all! And God is ever present, all there is.

The sun shines from one direction because it is in a single place. God, however, shines from every direction at the same time. God isn’t localized; Truth and Love are everywhere. God shines with intelligence from every location and from every viewpoint and direction. The darkness we call fear, ignorance, or hate, then couldn’t ever have any place in the light of God. With joy, we walk in this serene light and are conscious of its glow in our thoughts throughout the big and little moments of our day.

The illuminating power of divine Truth is always here, not to convert things from bad to good, but simply to reveal what is real. That’s what light does – it merely makes known what is already happening, what is present and true. And what is true and real is God. What is real is God’s magnificent creation and expression. That which is unreal needs no repair or conversion. What the light of divine Truth reveals to you each moment is the harmony of heaven, here and now, including your intact existence in it as a child of God.

No one is excluded from the benefit of this all-present, inextinguishable light. It is shining unimpeded in every corner of the universe and in every corner of thought. It reaches human consciousness to illumine the way even amid what seems the blackest darkness. You are naturally receptive to the light. It is always there for you, without variation. In fact, the Bible joyfully speaks about God as “the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17).

This light, this beautiful intelligence of Love, is spiritual and is reflected by you and everyone. We don’t ever have to switch off the dark. The light of God is the only thing present, and it’s all that ever will be present. Even in those specific locations or circumstances that would give you the impression of being inhabited by the most insidious evil, all that is present is the authority of God, gleaming radiantly and surely. All is the connected wholeness of “the Father of lights” and His manifestation.

From an editorial in the Christian Science Sentinel.