Do you close your eyes in the dark? By now you are questioning my question and maybe even my sanity. When the power goes off out here in the country, it is really dark, it is “can’t see my hand in front of my face dark”. When facing this kind of darkness my first thought is to close my eyes because the strain of trying to see is upsetting. With my eyes open the blackness seems to smother me, the straining is useless and the lack of light freezes me in place.
Many of us are in that kind of darkness in this season of life. Chronic pain, mental illness, marriage problems, divorce, financial, or a dreaded disease may be taking the light from your days. Insecurity and worry might keep you from seeing past your suffering so you automatically close your eyes to protect yourself from heartbreak. With our eyes closed tight we face our dark world alone and vow never to let ourselves be vulnerable to that harshness again.
If Daniel would have clinched his eyes shut in the dark days of being thrown into the lion’s den he would have missed the faithfulness of God in an impossible situation. He would have missed that God sent an angel to shut the mouths of the lions. Daniel 6.
With their eyes closed tight, Shadrack, Meshach, and Abednego couldn’t have seen the fourth man walking with them in the fire. “The man that was like the Son of God.” Daniel 3
If Jesus had begrudged the darkness of His crucifixion and closed His eyes, He would have missed the greatest occurrence of mankind, His Resurrection from the dead that saved us all from our sins and eternal death.
I know many strain to see good in bad situations but we can’t do it on our own. We must ask God to be in our pain. May He walk around in the fire of your crisis and close the mouths of those things that threaten to overcome you. Open your eyes even in the pitch-black circumstances of your life and see Him at work to turn darkness to amazing light.
In my studies, I found a surprising amount of verses about darkness and the Light that defeats it. As I read John 1:5 in many translations I found that darkness has not mastered the Light, darkness has not overcome the Light and darkness cannot put the Light down or out
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:5 NIV
I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
Acts 26:17-18 NIV
There is a little saying I have loved for years that says, “Don’t doubt in the dark what God has told you in the light.” I have found that all the things I have pondered and put into my heart in the light continue to hold me up through all circumstances of life. Don’t miss the miracle that opened eyes will reveal in the dark night of your life.
As my husband told my daughter, Missy, who is battling cancer, that she was so strong and how proud we are of her courage, she turned it around and gave praise and glory to the Light!
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