If you were anything like me or like most were children at a young age, then there was probably a time when you were afraid of something. Like most children there was a time when I was afraid of the dark and I didn’t like sleeping in my room alone because I was afraid of the unknown, just like most children are when they are young. Yet the only thing that made it tolerable was a night light, but then when the night light was on there was shadows and for some reason the shadows from the night light brought more unknowns. However, everyone kept telling me there was nothing to be afraid of, that there was no monsters or anything like that. Yet, it was not until I started believing the truth that the fear of the dark disappeared, and the fear of the unknown or shadows disappeared as well. So you’re probably thinking what does the fear of the dark or unknown or night lights have to do with anything? Well, if you think about being in the dark it is probably pitch black dark, but when you plug in a night light there become shadows, because there is a dim light but not too much light, which brings illumination hence the shadows are a glimpse to see that everything is not so dark anymore. Shadows are a reflection that there is light illuminating what used to be completely dark. For example God’s word which is the truth beings light and exposes the sin in our lives, or the darkness that is hiding behind sin. God takes the shame of our sin away by exposing it and bringing us into truth by leading us to walk in his ways, to walk in His truth. God can even take the past hurts from our lives and use them for good. Even the ones that have left on mark us to the point where we are scared to trust others or afraid to move past it. God can still use it for our good. He can even take the words that have hurt us from others and show us how to see the truth. God can even take the hurts that left us ashamed thinking that we’ve completely messed things up in the past to show us he still loves us. And he can show us that, what happened in the past is not what is in our present or future.
However, if we keep using past hurts or shame, as excuses to not move forward in life we will become stuck in life, not just where we are but also in our thinking. For instance, if we let something or what someone said in the past define how we live in the now could keep us from missing from seeing God’s best for us. In complete honesty everyone is not the same we are all made in God’s image, but those who have hurt us in the past, are probably not the same people who are in our now present. The point is the people from our past are not the people in our present. The people in our present may hurt us differently then the ones from our past but they are not the same. We can’t judge what happened to us in the past to what is going on in our present. If we expect that all people are the same then we are limiting what God can do or show us because we are choosing to only see past hurts. It is just like I cannot be jealous over what others have that I do not have yet, that has been a heart’s desire to get married and have kids someday. I have to choose to trust God in this waiting, in waiting for the one who is worth waiting for. And the one thing I keep being reminded of is that life is messy, people are messy, and imperfect, and yet God still calls us to love despite all of it. And God made us perfectly imperfect so that his perfect unconditional love could be displayed. So our need for God is still there. Moreover, I’ve been reminded that God does not live by our rules or boundaries, because he has his own. God exposes our flawed rules and boundaries in the light. The point is God’s unfailing steadfast love colors outside the lines whereas we always want to color inside the lines. In other words, we want our night lights to shine so brightly there is nothing to hide, and sometimes it seems like God’s light leaves shadows from our perspective but is that really reality or just our perception or perspective? So God’s light truth and love illuminates the darkness, and their maybe shadows so we have to trust him with the unknowns. It is always amazing to see how God leads us into all truth without humiliating us or making us feel ashamed when he corrects us in our sin, just like he did in John 4 when he spoke to the Samaritan woman. If you have not read this passage in a while I encourage you to read it, and if you have read it recently I urge you to read it with a fresh perspective, and to ask God to give you a fresh understanding.
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