The city had no need of the sun or the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light (Revelations 21:23 NKJV)
On one of our fall foliage trips, my family took in the mountains of Virginia, my son and I were part of one of the cavern tours there. Once we were deep in the caves the guide turned off all of the lights to expose us to the experience of being plunged into absolute blackness. I am surprised I didn’t become hysterical. Now I had never been one of those people who cower at not having a nightlight on, but this experience in the cave acquainted me with darkness as I had never known it. If the guide hadn’t mercifully flipped the light switch back on so quickly I am sure I would have become totally disoriented.
One Christmas shortly after that my late husband and I decided to exchange heavy duty flashlights as gifts, his a subdued black one, mine a jazzy electric blue. From that point on I became fixated on giving light sources as gifts and collecting some for myself along the way. There was the lantern I bought for my brother-in-law for power outages during storms, a flashlight like mine for my sister to keep by her bed, a headlamp for my son-in-law to use in his construction business when he found himself in tight spaces. And for good measure, a bright LED lantern for my own use, as well as a floating lantern to keep in my car.
It’s easy to draw the conclusion I was obsessed with seeing to it that neither I nor anyone close to me ever found themselves in the scary position of being engulfed in absolute darkness like I was exposed to in those caverns. While it is natural for us to fear darkness in our earthly sojourn we believers should have no such fear of the hereafter. There will be no need for the sun, moon or any other outside light source in the Holy City, as it will be fully illumined around the clock by God’s glory and Christ the Lamb, who is known in scripture as the light of the world. (John 8:12 KJV) ) This light isn’t just figurative, in the sense that when we accept Christ as our Savior our minds are illumined with the truth, (which is reason enough for celebration) but is literal as well. How glorious that we shall no longer be plagued with those fears that hide in the shadows but will know God fully revealed, a true feast for the senses. Let us rejoice.
Dear Father, Please accept our joy over the prospect of spending eternity with you. Amen
Carol (NC)
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Eternal Light
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