Henry was born into a world beneath the Earth’s surface void of any light. He stumbles around in pitch blackness navigating the underground tunnels entirely by touch, accustomed to collisions and falls from a lack of sight. Having grown up in this subsurface underworld, having no knowledge of surface-dwelling this individual is entirely unaware that they are missing out. Light is a foreign concept because the darkness is all he has ever known. Any rumors of light allowing something called “sight” that drift down to this subterrestrial existence that they may have heard about are entirely not understood. Henry is blind and he doesn’t even know it.
Scripture indicates that this is not too far from reality for much of this world. Apart from Christ, our only option is to dwell in the dominion of darkness (Colossians 1:13). God says that not only are unbelievers living in darkness but that they actually are darkness (Ephesians 5:8). And like this fictional child, they don’t even know it. They are blind without even realizing it. They stumble through life unaware of what they are missing out on. Unbelievers are left in this condition until the light of Christ crashes into their existence and brings sight to the blind in a very real way.
Light breaking in
Eventually, a sliver of light breaks through the ceiling and shines down into the underworld and unknown sight is gained. It is foggy, blurry, and dim, but finally, a ladder leading up to the surface can be spotted. Henry doesn’t understand what is happening, but he now knows there is so much more to this world than he has ever known. So he climbs the ladder and with every step, the world gets brighter and brighter. After much squinting and pausing to allow his unaccustomed eyes to adjust to the sight he pushes his way up to the Earth’s surface.
When the light of Jesus breaks through the darkness of this world it can’t be ignored. For the first time sin is seen for what it really is. For the first time truth is seen, believed, and understood. The reality of God and the reality of our own condition can no longer be ignored because it is sitting right in front of us. The truth is not always pleasant, but we can no longer close our eyes to its presence.
A whole new world
Henry can’t believe his eyes the world is so much more than he had ever experienced before. It was beautiful. It was terrible. He never knew that this was reality. He had thought the tunnels he had spent years traversing were all there was, but it turns out there is so much more. It seemed as though everywhere he looked there was evidence that things were not right. His years in the tunnels had never shown him anything like this before.
Before the light of Christ, we are living in ignorance. We are totally unaware that this world is broken. We have no idea of the existence of our perfect God nor the reality of our sinful condition. We are living blind to the real beauty of this world and also painfully unaware of our own condition. Living in real light changes all of that.
Is it worth it?
At times as Henry traverses this new world of light, he wishes he was still in darkness. It seems like it would have been easier to stay below the surface. He sees things he would rather not see. The reality that he can no longer avoid, is so unpleasant that he would like to close his eyes to it. He sees his reflection and he is not as attractive as he might have wished. At times he is even tempted to go through this sunny surface world with blinders in front of him. He desires to run from the light back to hide in the shadows. But he can’t. His eyes have been opened and no matter how hard he might try to close his eyes to this reality he cannot. He now has the light of the world. And the truth is, although his life is now more complicated than ever, and he can see all sorts of scary things, he wouldn’t trade it for the world, because closing his eyes to those things doesn’t make them go away. Now Henry can see real life.
Sometimes Christians don’t want to live in the light as they should. Instead, we try to slink back into darkness. The light of Jesus is too bright and we want to remove ourselves from it. It shines on us and shows all of our imperfections and we don’t like that. It would be ridiculous to close our eyes to the light once it has come into our life. If you are a Christian you are to live in the light. You cannot go back into darkness. And that light will show you just how broken this world really is. It will even show you just how broken you are. Be glad you can see it. Don’t close your eyes to it. Seeing it means you can see real life.
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12) Jesus is the light of the world. You don’t have to live in a world without light.