“Jesus said to them, ‘The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.’ “
(John 12: 35-36)

Have you ever noticed how a little light can make a big difference? A few weeks ago, I was sitting watching television when their was a big car accident near my neighborhood. The lights flickered for a moment and then everything went dark. The car had hit the transformer and knocked out all of the electricity. I opened my front door to see my neighborhood and several surrounding neighborhoods completing pitch black. I went to my kitchen and grabbed the lighter and lit some candles. Those candles gave off enough light that I could still sit and read in my living room.

Light has this amazing power to bring hope in the midst of the darkness. Light is indeed a sure sign of hope. Yet sometimes it can be so incredibly hard to find that light when it seems you are surrounded by darkness. The darkness too often overwhelmingly distinguishes the light. So are we willing to believe in the light when it is there? Are we also willing to be children of light to help spread the light of God’s love, light, and hope in this broken world?

Yet this world is so often–too often–filled with darkness. There are my LGBTBQ+ friends who yearn to see the light and be accepted in this world. There are my friends who are searching to find the light in the midst of their own battle of depression and/or anxiety. There are my friends who fear for their safety. Can we truly be children of the light and show them the light of Christ?

The truth is that too often the world is blinded by the darkness. We are afraid to show the light to others. Yet it is because of what Christ did for us that we have been given this gift; this gift of grace that opens our eyes to the hope of the resurrection and to the hope of light and life. For in dying on the cross and being raised again, Christ shows us that God indeed has the ultimate power; the power to overcome death and darkness with life and light.