What God Taught Me Through My Wife's Cancer...Continued from page 2

The poet Keats penned words for moments of darkness: “Beneath my palm tree, by the river side, I sat a weeping: in the whole world wide ...” When the darkness of chemotherapy came my wife and I wept and talked, and vowed together to trust God in the darkness. If you seek spiritual things eventually the darkness creates a yearning for light.

John tells us that the light shines and the darkness does not comprehend it. What did John mean? He means the darkness cannot comprehend light and that darkness cannot seize or grasp or take light captive. Darkness cannot imprison the light. He means that the darkness cannot quench the light.

Light Shines.

If I’ve learned anything, I know that God’s light shines even in darkness. The poet Walt Whitman spoke of life: “It is not upon you alone that dark patches fall, The dark threw its patches down upon me also.” Dark had thrown patches upon us, but Jesus said I am the Light of the world. Light shines. The Light reigns!

Paul invites the saints of God: “Walk as children of the light!” (Eph. 5:8). Paul experienced a thorn of the flesh. He dodged stones thrown at him whole running for his life on the fast track out of town. He knew the pain of disagreements (remember John Mark?), criticism of his preaching (remember his weighty letters, but bad speech that even put Eutychus asleep?), and the pain of hunger, cold nights, beatings, and weariness (II Cor. 11:24-27). In spite of the pain, the suffering, he challenges the saints of God: walk as children of the light.

Paul’s word to saints in the silent agony of suffering indicates a resource, like the Sun for the light of day, like electricity to a light bulb in your kitchen, like a battery illuminating a flash light on a camping trip in the dark of night. The resource is Christ.

Christ is the light of the world! He is the photos. He is the Light of hope. He is the Light of peace. He is the Light of love. He is the radiant, express image of God. He is the Light that lights the city on a hill. He is the Light behind the sun. He is the Light behind electricity. He is the Light behind the flashlight.