Night Lights

I haven't been able to sleep lately. I feel tired and I go to bed but instead of falling asleep fast, as I usually do, I lay there and toss about. Last night was by far the worst yet... hot, cold, hot, cold, a noise in the hall way, cold, hot, start to relax and a phone rings.. and thus it continues all night. Tonight I will not even try to sleep yet, which worked out well because I procrastinated on a paper due tomorrow and only finished it about 45 minutes ago or so. I was oddly awake for the entire thing. I can not figure how but perhaps my internal clock is off.

In any case, all that is a different story. Because I have been sitting up in the dark, trying to keep my light to a minimum as Andrea is asleep a few feet away. I found myself contemplating what "light" is and what "dark" is. I know for a fact that I took a mental vaction when Mr. Gay (that really was his name, poor man), my 7th grade science teacher discussed light and dark and the whole color spectrum to us. Perhaps that would be useful in this particular post but I'm not much in the mood for any more research tonight, so you must excuse me. All I do recall, and please correct me if I'm mistaken, but dark is only an absense of light. When you turn off the lights there are still things around you even if you can not see them. Just because I can not see to the far corner of my room at the moment does not mean it is not there, there is just an absense of light in that area of the room. I would assume, and I could be very off, that light is the same way.. simply an absense of darkness. Only when a light is turned on you can see everything clearly. Probably a good reason I prefer driving in the day to driving at night, not to mention I don't like reflections on headlights in my rearview mirror.

Long story short I was realing that light is stronger than darkness. When light is present darkness flees. Light can dwell in darkness but darkness can not dwell in light. Darkness can dwell around light but ot in it. A rather simple thing to notice, but deffinately something I believe is worthy to notice. Come to think of it, Jesus states it perfectly in Matthew 5 when He says, "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill can not be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl, instead they put it on a stand and it gives light to everyone..." etc, etc... Actually, if you ever decide to do a Bible-word search on the word "light" you'll learn and find a lot of things. Things such as, "The light [meaning the light of God] shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it and the darkness has not overcome it" from John 1:5.

Christians are called to be lights in a world of darkness. I recall a strange memory from not too long ago in which I was sitting on a bench over looking a place which could have been a city although the lights were spread out. The tiny dots of light moved about from place to place bringing light to spots around it. Some of the little dot flickered and some stayed constantly bright. Some moved about as if avoiding something while others moved into the darkness and made more little dots of light and some of the dots stuck together, flickering. Some of the little dots flickered and dissapeared completely and while a small few shone unusually brighter than the others.

Why is it that moths are drawn to the light? Why is it that people, if lost in the forest are drawn to a camp fire or light on a distant hill? Is it simply a means of survival or a scientific 'fact?' I ponder these things as I sit here in my dimly lit room in the early morning, wishing I could be soundly asleep in my bed. I wonder why light can be in the midst of darkness and darkness can not be in the midst of light. I don't want (or need) facts about the color spectrum or any mathematical equasions that will -- excuse the pun -- shed light, on my curiosity. I know that 'where there is light, darkness can not dwell'... that I know from the Bible, and I don't need a 'fact' to prove to me such things... things like this, I'd rather take by faith.

Proverbs 13:9 says, "The light of the righteous shines brightly...."