Our Nightlight

“I am the light of the world.  He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness…” John 8:12b

Bruce’s dad came to live with us with what ended up being his last year of life with Alzheimer’s.  We live in a home that is spread out and the guest room and den where Bud stayed was on the other side of the house.  One night I heard something in the baby monitor that we had installed in both our room and his room.  I crept down the steps and over to his area and found him in the bathroom up against a closet door unable to find his way back to bed.  It just broke our heart that the nightlights we had provided didn’t help him in the darkness.  After that night Bruce installed automatic lights in the bathroom in addition to the nightlight along the way.  Once he passed through the bathroom threshold, the light came on and would stay on until a few minutes after he had left the bathroom.  Even though the room was dark, there was light along the way every night after that.

When I think of this verse I am reminded of that night and how terrified he was until the automatic lights were installed.  Jesus is our automatic light that shows the path when things are dark.  There are little nightlights along the way that keep our eyes focused on the journey.  Sometimes things are so dark that He lights up a full area to sooth our fears and calm our hearts.  In order to receive the light we need along the way, we must be a follower of Jesus and not a leader of the world.  The world promotes darkness while Jesus promises light.  The world will lead to destruction while Jesus leads to redemption.  The world ends in death, while Jesus leads us to life. 

We have a choice to make when walking through our circumstances.  Will we follow the light of Christ or will be make our way blindly, bumping into the things of this dark world?  I feel certain that Jesus rarely questioned the path God led Him because He fully trusted that His Father had gone before Him.  ‘God does not call us into places where His feet have not already marched.  Our job is to simply fit our footsteps into His.’  Ready – Courage to Face the Unknown, Heather M Dixon, p. 95.