Light the Way with Jesus

Posted by: Leah Gartner, Director of Marketing and Events | Monday, March 31st, 2025 (12:00am)

And God said “let there be light” and there was light. God saw that the light was good and he separated the light from the darkness. — Genesis 1:3

The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. The True light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. — John 1:5

There are many references to light in the Bible. It is one of those concepts that I’ve heard so much in my life that I take it for granted. Of course, light is wonderful, it’s shining and glorious. It’s great for Christmas cards and devotional books because lights are pretty and give us a warm fuzzy feeling. But one day I really started to ponder…why light? What does light do for us? What does it bring us? What is the problem with darkness that light is trying to solve? After all, God’s first act of creation was to command light into existence. Turning on the lights was His first order of business.

Like most kids I used to be afraid of the dark. Growing up I was the only girl with two older brothers, so I had my own room. This was awesome, but it also meant I was alone at night to defend myself against the totally real monsters that lived in my room. I would make up “rules” in my head so I would feel less scared. If I faced the door, I was ok, but if I faced the wall, I was convinced the monster that was in my closet would come out and get me.

The strange thing is I had no problem being by myself…during the day. When the lights were on I could be in my room alone playing for hours and I was perfectly fine. I would easily lose track of time as I played teacher to my classroom of stuffed animals or opened my storefront for all the local Cabbage Patch Kids. It’s not like I thought the monster wouldn’t bother me; I didn’t think about him at all. It was like he wasn’t even there.

You see, in the light every square inch of my room was visible. I could easily tell that the weird shape on my chair was a pile of stuffed animals. The hand reaching out of the bottom of my closet was just a sock. That strange sound was my fan blowing on a piece of paper. In other words, I could see things for what they were. In the light was complete truth, the entire picture. In the dark the doubt and fear could creep in (“you better not move because that could be a monster!”). The dark breeds deception.

But darkness isn’t always deception. If I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, it was impossible to find the door. I would be feeling the wall, desperately fumbling for the door handle. I would be so close to it, but in the dark it felt like a mile away. In the dark, I was lost. I couldn’t see all the “traps” that were laid out on my floor. Without turning on a light I would trip over shoes, step on a Lego, or completely misjudge how far away my chair was and run my hip right into it. In the dark I would hurt myself on things that could be so easy to avoid if the lights were on. The Darkness is disorienting.

Despite being “alone” in my room, the fact was my entire family was in the house. My parents were just down the hall, not on another planet. But the dark made me feel separated and on my own. Like I had to fight the unseen monster all by myself. When, in reality, all I needed to do was call out to my parents and they would have turned on the light to check on me. If someone had gotten into the house my dad would have been there in a heartbeat to protect his child. He would have given everything to keep me safe. But in the Darkness I feel deserted.

That is the problem with darkness.

In the dark we feel deserted and alone. We get disoriented and easily lose our way. We hurt ourselves with things that could be avoided. In the absence of light we are quickly deceived, because we cannot trust our senses and we are left with the fertile ground of lies that fear grows in.

We desperately need the light.

That is why the picture of light is so important. Why God’s first order of business was to “turn the lights on,” and why Jesus is called the light of the world.

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the antidote to darkness. He provides the path we need to keep us from getting lost and disoriented. His word, which is truth, is “the lamp unto my feet and light unto my path” so we can clearly see where we need to go and what we need to avoid. He is the light that fills us, helps us realize we are never alone, and reminds us that God is with us as we face challenges.

That’s why understanding the importance of light is one of the first things we learn as people. It’s so simple, yet we can easily forget it.

We desperately need “The Light,” and Jesus is the only true light that lasts.