Tuesday, December 13

THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

Isaiah 9:1-7

Have you ever felt darkness? Have you ever been in a place of dread, where every step you took only landed in a shadow? Has your mind ever known those troubled thoughts of wondering whether there was an exit from the darkness into which you entered so long ago? Have you ever tripped on the uneven ground, because you can't see the path through the thick blackness? Have you? I have. But I also have good news for you and me. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Think of the times when you're driving along an expressway through a tunnel, and it seems you can only see the end as a tiny little dot of light. But the further you go, the bigger and brighter it gets. It was big all along, but you just couldn't see it when you were right there in the great big middle of it all. That's how it is in this life we call a pilgrimage. Our Lord never promises us any different type of journey than one like His own. Do you remember the Garden of Gethsemane, where there were no disciples to lean on, and the darkness was so thick, you could cut it? Or the temptation in the wilderness, that just wouldn't let up? Do you know that His Father never left Him?

One thing I have noticed is that every time the darkness seems to surround me, God is surrounding me closer. One Christmas Eve, my Dad used an illustration in his sermon, about a family whose Holiday was made better by a card that was placed in their Christmas tree, which read, "God loves you!" One night, this little card was slipped under my closed bedroom door, and I have kept it on my wall ever since. Many times, when there have been moments of overwhelming and increasing darkness, somehow the tiny card on my wall catches my eye—"God loves you!"

It is also easy to slip and fall in the darkness, and the more and more that happens, it makes it that much easier to give up and not walk on. Good news! There is a Hand reaching out from One who has gone this way before us. He is pleading with us to give up trying on our own. It is time to trust the One who has infinite strength—the One who can not only see the end, but has planned the end. In fact, this is the way I like to think of it: The Bible says He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end; the Light given for me and you....

.... The people that walked in darkness, have seen a great light. They that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.

Look, faintly I see a distant light,

Shimmering over the crashing waves.

Just as I thought to give up the fight,

I saw the towering beacon that saves.

Show me the way, I feel so all alone.

Close to me stay, As I lean upon Your throne.

~ Kara Heather Warren