DARKNESS!

Yup! It’s dark. That’s why you can’t see much in the picture. The sun has set. Night has fallen. And it’s only 3:30 pm! That’s what happens when you live 57°North of the equator, a paltry 9°below the Arctic Circle! Add to this the perpetually overcast skies, and you have a pretty bleak midwinter day to be ecstatic about!

Life. Darkness and light. Night and day. Pain and pleasure. Bane and blessing.

The truth is that we are going to experience darkness of one sort or another, of one intensity or another, before this life is over. The question is not whether darkness will envelop us; the question is when it will. Pleasure, one said, is but an intermission in the sequence of pain. Some of you might actually be in the valley of shadow of death even as you read this. For others, 2006 may be the harbinger of tears, the valet of pain, the emissary of grief. It’s only a matter of time. Life is messy!

Flee these morbid thoughts, you say. But I say, better to be prepared. How? How can we be ready to face those trials, tumults, turmoils that life is sure to cast in our paths?

Hopefully, the worst is over for us Aberdonians suffering the disappearance of that bright orb of fire in the sky these wintry days. The longest night of the year is behind us. This darkness shall pass. My confidence is grounded in the sure knowledge that, beyond the darkness, there is a sun. Indeed!

And you know what? Beyond our life-is-messy-darknesses, as well, there is a Sun—this One, however, is the Sun of righteousness, packing energy Spiritual, not solar.

Light and life to all He brings,
Ris’n with healing in His wings.

Charles Wesley, 1739, from Malachi 4:2

This is the Son, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross (Hebrews 12:2). He went through darkness, so that you and I wouldn’t have to live in it forever, so that we wouldn’t be beset by an eternity of wintry nights, unrelenting pain, unflagging grief, haunting bane. This was the joy He pursued—to save us, to redeem us, to rescue us. This was His joy—His love for you, for me!

Therefore, there is an end to the darkness. This darkness, too, shall pass. The Sun will rise. In fact, He is risen! And one day, darkness will fade away permanently: there shall no longer be any night, neither will there be a need for the light of the sun, because the Lord God shall illumine them—His people, the saints of God, you, and me (Revelation 22:5).

Life—hallelujah!—will no longer be messy!

For momentary, light affliction
is producing for us
an eternal weight of glory
far beyond all comparison,
while we look not at the things which are seen,
but at the things which are not seen;
for the things which are seen are temporal,
but the things which are not seen are eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:17–18

Keep your eyes on the Son!