Advent Devotion: John 1:5
Overcoming Darkness (Part 1)
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The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.
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Dark is a vanishing commodity in our world. I've been blessed to live in a few places where the dark is plumb dark. Slap dark. Dark dark.
In complete dark, the starlight is dazzling. On a dark night you can see a single candle light for 1.6 miles. The darkness cannot quench the light. In fact, it intensifies it.
The dark cannot "overcome" the light. But that word has another meaning. To overcome also means to master, to comprehend. In my school days I found there were some subjects I could master... But there were others I could not comprehend. When I took my final exams, I found the subject had overcome me.
The darkness cannot understand the light. It can rail against it. It can hate it. It can try to extinguish it. But it is doomed to fail, because it can never master it.
When you bear God's light into this world, no matter how small it might be, people can see it for miles. Those who love darkness may despise it, but that is only because they cannot comprehend it.
No matter what the world throws at you it cannot overcome your light. In fact, all the darkness in the world just intensifies your light. In this world, you are dazzling.