Isaiah 2:5, the prophetic oracle as we journey into Advent, prompts us to walk in the light of the Lord together. But for us to walk in this light, the light needs its natural opposite of darkness to accompany it. Not to be in opposition to the light, as we so often assume and attach those sorts of connotations to it, but because the light and the darkness are complementary parts of a larger whole. Think for a moment about what we hear in Genesis, darkness, and light, water, and land are separated from each other but remain as linked pairs that offer different aspects of a larger whole. And John begins his Gospel drawing from this sense of the beginning of all things,
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him, not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” (John 1:1-5)
God is present in the darkness and the light for all of the time, God creates out of this darkness. Our lives depend on a cycle of light and darkness. We need our times of resting and being re-created in the darkness of sleep and our times of rising in the light to do the daily work of living. The light of God allows us to see and to trust in this creative darkness to inspire and refill us for our days. How do you need to trust more in what might be discovered in the richness and inspiration of God’s darkness?
