When I was much younger I wasn't particularly keen on night time at all, particularly when it was time to go to bed. That was the time when mum and dad often had visitors in and usually after a quick hello, it was an even quicker goodnight and we were sent packing with the express instruction not to return from whence we had come. Yet I remember vividly, on many occasions venturing down the stairs from the bedroom, often only one step every five minutes and with plenty of coughing, just hoping that mum might take pity on me and invite me to join the party. It never happened, though many times there were words strongly suggesting why I should get back beneath the covers before dad took it upon himself to put me there.I don't know whether it was the darkness but there is no doubt that night time can manufacture all sorts of shadows and noises at just the most inopportune moment. Why, for example, don't floorboards creak during daylight? And how come our imaginations are so much better in darkness? Anyway, I guess over the years, experience is a big factor in getting used to night time and the many questions it can pose on the unsuspecting mind. And familiarity plays its part as well. I recall standing outside a lodge in a safari park in Africa, where we had been warned about the possibility of freely roaming lions parading past our door and for a long time in the early hours, listening to many unfamiliar noises and watching one pair of eyes watching us from the safety and dark camouflage of a group of trees. Definitely a slightly uncomfortable experience, if unforgettable. Generally, being in a strange place at night does bring its own level of discomfort and unease that daylight in the same spot does not cause. And even if the area is familiar, how often have you imagined at night that there is some evil lurking behind every tree, every wall, every hedge and every corner, just waiting to jump out and wreak havoc.
Yet our days are very definitely divided into things we associate with daylight and those that we confine to the hours of darkness. For many, school, work, business meetings, shopping, gardening, washing the car and many sports are all daylight activities while we devote our night times to relaxation, lighting the fire, internet surfing, having friends round, phoning relatives, listening to or playing music, going to church functions, to a concert or to the pub, watching television or a movie. We are indeed creature of habit and while the above lists are neither exhaustive nor inclusive of everyone, I think it is fair to say that the norm for many folks is not far away.
Yet I love the night and there is nothing better than sitting out at the picnic table, with a hot cup of coffee, on a night in any season, when the stars are all switched on and a canopy of lights further than the eye can see, just fills the sky in every direction and allows me to reflect on the magnitude of our own galaxy, those galaxies stretching towards infinity and of course the magnitude of a Creator, big enough to oversee the whole of His work and yet small enough to live in my heart and soul. Now that is something very special.
I was reading this morning in John 8 where Jesus says ' I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life' and I was struck by how much we depend on light during the darkness of night time. Maybe it never really comes home until the electricity stops working and we struggle on with the aid of a few candles, yet no matter how effective artificial light may be, it can never really take the place of the natural light of the sun. And so it is with Jesus, for the light of the Son of God, uncovers every single corner of our lives and exposes anything that we would try to hide in the shadows. I guess that's because with the light of the Son, there are no shadows and there is therefore nowhere to hide and as He says a few chapters hence 'I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.'
You know it is possible to struggle on in darkness and even to hide certain things from general view but why would you want to when Jesus can make everything clear. And of course the one thing that He makes more clear than anything else is that there is no other light that illuminates the road to salvation and reconciliation with God. And the good thing is He is ready to forgive us, day or night.
