A Lesson In Darkness

Early this morning, I awoke to darkness in our home. The power had gone out for over 4,500 customers in North Nampa. As my husband stumbled around trying to get ready for work in the blackness, I ran around and gathered up our collection of candles and lit them one by one. Little by little, this began to afford us enough light to do a few of the things we needed to do to get ready for the day.
As I walked downstairs in the dark, holding only a jar candle to light my way, I began to feel God was showing me a lesson. My thoughts went back to the night before, in our Bible class, when we watched a video called "Everything Is Spiritual". I remembered the guy in the video talking about how we are all spiritual just as much as physical, even if we can't see it. I remember asking God why we can't just see the spiritual things for what they are.
I felt God answering that question this morning. He asked me if I was walking around in this house. I said, "of course!" to which He replied "How do you know you are? Can you see it?".
 "Well.. not right now.."
 He continued, "If you can't see it right now, how do you know you are not just walking around in darkness, not a house?"
 I thought about this for a minute. "Well, I can feel that I am walking around in the house."
"What do you do when you want to actually see the house you walk in?"
I looked down at the candle in my hand and felt God beaming at me, "Yes! That little flame on the candle you hold lights your way enough to give you a dim image of the house you are walking in," "You wanted to see where you were walking and so light a candle so you may." "My Child, that candle is like your faith. It lights your way before you just enough to see your next steps for where you are going. It does not light up the entire room to show the whole house at once. It throws out just enough light for you to keep taking each step. As long as you hold the candle in front of you and look only where you are walking, not ahead of where you walk or behind what you have already walked, you will not stumble.".
I smiled and nodded as I began to understand what God was teaching me. As long as I kept that candle lit and walked by each step it illuminated, it would give off enough light to see that next step. But I had to keep my eyes fixed on the path before me. If I focused on the path way ahead of me, my eyes began to get lost in the darkness, and likewise with the path far behind me. By that little candle light, I could see step by step, that I was indeed walking around in the house.
I began to see that the Kingdom of God is like the house. It is absolutely there; no doubt about it! I could feel it as I walked around in it. I could even begin to see it as I lit that small flame. It was definitely real and not being able to actually see it didn't make it any less real.
The people who don't have faith are like those who walk around in the dark, without a candle. They cannot see the house. They could end up walking right out of the house and not even know it! They don't believe they are even in the house.
Just then my attention was brought back to the present, as the power quickly flashed back on throughout the house. Now there was absolutely no doubt that I was in the house. Everything was bathed in light and I could see all of the room. Not just the little corner where I was walking.
I felt God get sad as He softly said the next words. "Some people stumble right out of the house without even seeing that they have. When Jesus comes again, it will be like the power being turned back on in the house. It will happen very suddenly and everything will be lit for those in the house. There will be no doubt that you are standing in the house. You will see every corner of it. However, those who are not in the house when the power comes back on will be stuck, stumbling around in the darkness outside."
Friends, we have been blessed with this little light of faith to show the way. Let us share it with those who have an unlit candle in their hands and are stumbling around in the dark. By lighting another candle, you don't lose any light from the one you lit it with. In fact, the light grows with each new candle lit. Let us be the light that shows the way through the house! Just think how much of the house could be seen if we kept lighting others candles!
And one last thought, when the power does come back on, let's make sure we are standing in the house!

"There are Many who say, 'Who will show us any good?'
Lord, lift up the light of Your countenance upon us.
You have put gladness in my heart,
More than in the season that their grain and wine increased.
I will both lie down in peace, and sleep;
For You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety."

Psalm 4:6-8