The Opposites
A memory game in a tattered pink box lies with other games in a drawer of my grandmother’s chifferobe in our living room. The game is called Match the Opposites. I ordered it from the Current catalog back in the 1980s, long before anyone ever heard of ordering online.
Instead of the typical memory game where players match two identical cards, the object of this game is, as the name describes, to match opposites. Examples of matching cards are: short, tall; skinny, fat; boy, girl; young, old; day, night; black, white; near, far; round, flat; high, low; in, out; happy, sad; quiet, noisy; first, last; cold, hot; little, big; empty, full.
In Acts 26, the apostle Paul took advantage of being under arrest to talk to King Agrippa and his wife Berniece about his faith. Paul told the royal couple what happened when Jesus appeared to him as he traveled on the road to Damascus.
Paul quoted Jesus’ words to the king:
. . . for this purpose I have appeared to you,
to appoint you a minister and a witness
not only to the things which you have seen,
but also to the things in which I will appear to you;
rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles,
to whom 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.
Acts 26:16-18
I usually think of opposites as a concept in grammar, but opposites are a spiritual concept, too. Jesus calls people from darkness to its opposite: light. And He calls us from the dominion of Satan to the complete opposite: His Father God.
Jesus told the twelve disciples:
If anyone wants to be first,
he shall be last of all and servant of all.
Mark 9:35
Paul told the Thessalonians:
. . . for you are all sons of light and sons of day.
We are not of night nor of darkness . . .
1 Thessalonians 5:5
Paul told the Ephesians:
But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off
have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Ephesians 2:13
The apostle John told Christians:
This is the message we have heard from Him
and announce to you, that God is Light,
and in Him there is no darkness at all.
1 John 1:5
Each day you have the opportunity to point your children away from darkness and toward the light and away from the dominion of Satan to God.