Apr. 14, 2017

Night 'n Day

My reflection today encompasses the idea of the contrast between night and day. When you think of night and day what thought comes to mind? I suppose there may be a number of various images that surface in our thinking. For example, one might picture a scene where the moon is shining brightly and the stars are twinkling in a calm and peaceful night sky. Or one may picture the brightness of a sunshiny day contrasted with a deep blue sky and fluffy white clouds drifting along by a gentle breeze. As one continues to allow their imagination to bring one image after another regarding night and day what I have discovered about myself is how my mind tends to create images that lends itself to peaceful scenes. There may be a reason for that. In a world that often seems plagued by a lack of peace perhaps the contrast between night and day may take on a different meaning altogether.

I have raised this thought in other entries where in scripture night or darkness relates to an inability to understand or to grasp the meaning of something. Day or light, on the other hand, presents the idea that understanding has opened the mind to grasp a meaning that was hidden and now exposed. This is also related to the idea of sight versus blindness. For example,  in a portion of the famous sermon on the mount found in Mathew’s gospel chapter five and verses 14 -16 Jesus is recorded as saying,"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lamp stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men (and women) in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” What strikes me about this passage, as I think about it now, relates to the awareness that had to occur within a person to see themselves in participation with being a light in the world. 

As I reflect on this night and day awareness, whatever it is that all of a sudden is revealed, comes to light, becomes exposed or however you want to describe it is, in my experience, a transforming phenomena that completely floods darkness with overwhelming light. Or completely changes former understandings giving way to the possible embrace of new understandings. Evidently this idea of light and darkness must play a very big role for Jesus to raise the issue more than once within his famous sermon. He offers the following out of the Phillip’s Translation,“The lamp (or light) of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. If all the light you have is darkness, it is dark indeed!” How we view stuff or how we internalize things we experience has a lot to do with our understanding. Our eyes can view something and at the same time not understand what we are viewing. 

This gets back to our reflective nature. In other words, if we decide to return evil for the evil we receive from others then our evil retaliations are reflected out of our darkness. When our reactions are sourced out of our lack of understanding then we reflect a darkness caused by our own blindness. We don’t know we are blind. We think we can see. We are told by well meaning people that we have to worship in a certain way or believe or act in a certain way in order to find the right keys to unlock the prison door we have tried to open for years. 

Here’s a thought to ponder. What if the Door is already open? When we discover that the true Light already exists within each of us, our discovery of this Light Source not only changes what we see but it changes how we see it. It’s like the difference between night and day. You are Sourced in Light and the source of our Light is Jesus Christ himself. No wonder the psalmist said, “Joy comes in the morning!”