Blinded by the light.

Have you ever been in total darkness?

Even at night, there is still ambient light that helps to dimly illuminate our world. The moon and stars are two sources of ambient light even at the darkest point of the night. Then there are streetlights, porch lights, and other light sources that add a little light during the evening hours.

We don’t often realize just how much light there is until we experience total, pitch-black darkness.

On a family vacation through Wyoming, Montana, and South Dakota during my teens, our family took a tour through a series of subterranean caves. At the lowest point in the cave, the guides turned off the lights and let us all experience near-total darkness. It was the kind of darkness where you could hold your hand right up to your face and not see it. If you didn’t have the physical sensation, you woudn’’t be able to tell if your eyes were open or closed. Were it not for the assurance that the lights would be coming back on, it would have been quite a frightening experience.

When we all climbed out of the cave, having become accustomed to a low light environment, we were all squinting for a while as our eyes grew accustomed to the illumination provided by the summer sun.

Photo from PXhere.com

We were, in a sense, blinded by the light.

By the way, if you now have the chorus to that song stuck in your head,…

…you’re welcome.

Of course, once we had grown accustomed to the light, we were no longer blinded by it. However, we had a much greater appreciation for the sun than we had before we had the South Dakota cave experience.

The disciples of Jesus had a much more pronounced experience described in Matthew 17.

And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. (Matthew 17:1-2 ESV)

This event is known as the “transfiguration.” Peter, James, and John saw the glory of the Son of God unmasked. And they were blinded. John would have a similar experience in Revelation when he saw the Alpha and the Omega in his vision.

The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, "Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. (Revelation 1:14-18 ESV)

John said that when he saw Him, he fell at His feet as though dead.

The intensity of that light was a far greater example of just how startling light can be.

And yet it is the very strength of the light of our Lord that David speaks of in Psalm 27.

Of David. The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? (Psalm 27:1 ESV)

The light and salvation that David speaks of expels fear. It is the very power of the light of our Lord that gives us confidence in even in the darkest of days.

I imagine the first time we see the risen Christ; we too will be startled by the light as if we have emerged from a cave to see the brightest of lights we have ever seen. I imagine we will have much the same reaction as did Peter, James, and John. And yet it is that very light which even now gives us the confidence to say, with David, “whom shall I fear…of whom shall I be afraid?

Keep safe, be well, and stay encouraged.

Brian