Night Lights
Late Saturday afternoon Ray called me from the living room to come and see this pink sky. Of course, I grabbed my camera. This was my first shot. I love how it illustrates the sharp contrast between light and darkness.
Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
God saw that the light was good;
and God separated the light from the darkness.
Genesis 1:3
In the very beginning, God separated light from the darkness, and they have been separated ever since. Once even a tiny light comes into a dark place, the darkness is shattered. Darkness can never hide the light.
One of the crucial jobs of a parent is to teach their children the difference between light and darkness, because:
The way of the wicked is like darkness;
They do not know over what they stumble.
Proverbs 4:19
Ray and I sleep best in a room that is as dark as possible, but we always keep a lamp on in the hall outside our room. We didn’t used to do this, but we have ever since Ray stumbled on the stairs and landed on a tooth!
Many loving mamas place night lights in just the right places when their children are little. The wise mama continues to place light in just the right places as her children grow up. They do this to protect them from stumbling in the much more dangerous dark places her children will come upon in the world. The wise mama knows that these spiritual “night lights” are even more crucial than the kind she plugged into outlets when her kids were little.
When Jesus spoke to Saul, the future apostle Paul, on the road to Damascus, He gave him a job to do. The wise mama fulfills the same job with her children because it doesn’t matter how smart her children are or how much they learn from curriculum or what scores they receive on standardized tests or what college they enter, if they don’t learn the basic lesson the Savior of the world wanted Paul to teach.
Jesus told Paul:
I am sending you, to open their eyes
so that they may turn from darkness to light
and from the dominion of Satan to God,
that they may receive forgiveness of sins
and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified
by faith in Me.
Act 26:17b-18