The Light of Life

John 8:12
Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

Are you afraid of the dark? In most cases, I myself am not. I remember enjoying it when we would have power failures at night as a child. I found it exciting to lurk around my house, attempting to scare my siblings, mother, or dog. There was one time, however, that I remember longing for the light. It was at summer camp when I was in high school. While the sun was still up, my friends and I walked a long way off the trail to do some exploring. Unfortunately, we didn’t calculate the time very well and the sun went down before we could get back. To make the situation worse, it was an overcast night without a star in the sky. I didn’t know where I was, where I was going, or what might jump out of the woods and devour me… I was scared. My eyes felt like they were bugging out of my head as they longed for light. It was completely dark. I’ll never forget the feeling I experienced when we saw the first glimpse broken light through distant tree limbs. We were able to follow it back to the camp without any further complications.

Jesus Christ says that He is the Light of the world. Until we meet Him, we are in a perpetual state of wandering through darkness. If you haven’t noticed, life isn’t a “darkness” like my house, either. It isn’t familiar, there aren’t moonbeams coming through the windows, and family doesn’t always surround you. The darkness of life is much more akin to the camp experience I suffered through. There’s no sense of which direction you are heading, you often don’t know where you have come from, and the environment can be extremely hostile. It is from this state of being that Christ delivered us. There is one stipulation we must not overlook though… we must whole-heartedly follow Him.

Just as my friends and I were delivered from complete darkness upon seeing the light in the distance, you too are delivered from complete darkness upon accepting Christ as your Savior. Sadly, though, many of us never take the next logical step. We fail to realize that our relationship with Christ is a growing process. We are led to believe that becoming a Christian will suddenly solve all of life’s difficulties. The truth is we must start walking towards the light from day one. We must follow the light on a daily basis and never look back. When Jesus says, “he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness” He is saying “He who accompanies me through life… he who is my disciple through life, will have the Light of life.”

Are you truly following Christ today or are you a Christian walking through darkness with the Light of life nothing more than a small flicker through the distant branches? I pray that starting today you would turn towards your Savior and make Him Lord by following whole-heartedly after Him.