March 14 Devotion

Genesis 1:3-4
Psalm 84:5*
Psalm 119:105**
John 8:12***
Romans 5:1-2****

We Have Never Been the Same

God said, “Let there be light.”
And there was light.
It was Good.
God separated the light from the darkness.
The day from the night.
And planted his children in the garden.

A snake slithered onto the scene,
Evil incarnate.
Hissing its darkness and manipulation.
In the brightness of day
The darkness of sin arrived,
We have never been the same.

They have neither knowledge nor understanding.
They walk around in darkness;
All the foundations of the earth are shaken.*

We could be walking around in darkness.
Living in a cave in which there is no light,
No hope.
No joy.
And yet God did not leave us alone.
Even in our darkness
Even in this hopelessness
We are not alone.

With Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah and Jeremiah,
With each of them
God struck a match,
Brought a tiny flame of light into the world.
A sputtering, vulnerable light.
And in its glowing
In the warmth of its heat
We have never been the same.

Your word is lamp to my feet
And a light to my path.**

So often we ignored it.
So many times we refused to see the light God sent
We closed our eyes
Backed away from its heat
And pretended that darkness was our home.
And yet God did not leave us alone,
Not even then.

He sent his son.
Instead of sending light,
He sent The Light.
The darkness cannot overcome it.
Hope is made real.
We have never been the same.

He said, “I am the light of the world
Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness
But will have the light of life.”***

Love is no longer abstract.
But was nailed to a cross.
For three days it seemed that darkness would have
The Final Word.
Light was extinguished.
Darkness crept along the ground
Like gray smoke.

But God is God.
It was never his plan to leave us alone.
He has never given up.
He would never leave us in the darkness of death.
His son arose.
And light, brighter than ever before,
Burst upon our eyes.
We have never been the same.

We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Through whom we have obtained access to this grace
In which we stand.
And we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.****

He searches us.
He shines light in every corner of our souls,
Finds the darkness,
And it is banished in the light of grace.
And we have never been the same.

Kim Matthews