Inseparable: Light and Love

"Where are you?"  

She hears, but is afraid to come out of the shadows, for she knows that if she walks into the light that is inseparable from the One who called her, her sin and imperfections will be exposed. 

"What if He doesn't love me anymore?" She asks herself, fearing that all she's known of Him will be proven untrue.

His footsteps come closer. He calls her by name. His voice filled with tender love. 

His light shines on the trees around her, maker her shadowy hiding place a little more conspicuous. 

She remembers the many times He has held her in the past as she wept over her pain. His kindness towards her fills her mind, and she knows that she can't live without Him. If she must go on, she must be exposed to the light, however uncomfortable. 

Really, what does she have to lose if she has Him? Or on the contrary, what does she have to gain if she loses Him?

She steps out of hiding. The light catches first her feet, and then there in plain sight is her sin, exposed before Him. She grimaces, wondering what He will do next. 

But instead of chiding her as she expects, He steps closer to her and pours His own blood over her sin. 

She weeps as she watches it disappear into the covering of His righteousness. 

And more than ever before, she feels freedom from that very thing that kept her in hiding, for He has enveloped her in His love and righteousness.

She feels closer to Him now, listening as He shares His heart with her. 

She realized that she couldn't hear when she was in the dark, but now that she has come out of hiding, her hearing and sight of the spiritual things she knew before are clear. 

And she is confident that she is loved. Not just because she has learned this fact from others who tell her, but because she has experienced it for herself. 

///

"...God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth." (1 John 1:5-6)

"...Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love." (1 John 4:8)

Love and light are so intricately intertwined. 

Perhaps it's because both describe Jesus. 

Perhaps it's because, when you get to know Him that's what you experience. 

Jesus doesn't just love in action. Jesus is love. When you see Him, you learn what love is. 

But the only reason you can see love is that He is light, too.

Light exposes that which opposes it, while love draws the one in the clutches of the opposition into the very heart of God, where freedom is found. 

Light makes love more beautiful, for what is revealed in the light makes love seem more impossible. Love makes one grateful for light, for without light, love becomes bland and meaningless. 

The love of God grows in our hearts and lives as the light exposes that which we think makes us not loveable. 

Light makes visible that which makes us numb towards Love's touch, for in the darkness love isn't felt, but in the light, all feeling returns, and love is no longer an idea, but a reality.

So don't be afraid of the light, for it is there that love becomes tangible. 

Light makes us humble and receptive to the love of God. This is why we should welcome it.

It was in the light that Adam and Eve were clothed, though the shame of their nakedness made them want to hide in the dark.

Whenever light shines on our sin, it is not to drive us into hiding, but to bring us to the One who covers it with His own love. 

Many lean too hard in their thoughts about God in the "Light" category, living to expose sin, or to have their sin exposed, but pouring shame on the heads of those who sin -including themselves. 

Others lean too hard in their thoughts about God in the "love" category, thinking that God's love is accepting as good that which would never survive in the light. 

But love loses its luster in the darkness. 

In fact, love ceases to be love in the dark, for you cannot separate the love of God from the light of God.

You cannot separate God from Himself. 

//

"Don't let God or others see you as you are... they'll hate you!" The voice whispers into her ear. 

She does not realize that hiding in his domain-the domain of darkness- has given him access to her. It is there that he has liberty to speak, for she has no light to expose him to be the fraud that he is. 

Her brothers and sisters in Christ gather, speaking life into one another, but she carries around secrets -secrets that make her feel ashamed. 

Some of her secrets are little things about herself that she does not like. 

Others are things that happened to her a long time ago. 

Still more are things she has done that she is ashamed of. 

And then there are lies she hears on a regular basis about herself, God, and others. 

Oh, she is a mess, and she is afraid of telling, for in her mind, it is not safe. 

She does not know that healing and freedom would come if she just walked into the light. 

But then, someone sees her and reaches into her life with the love and kindness of God. Slowly, she feels safe enough to open up her heart to them, and as she does, she finds there is real freedom in doing so. 

Something about walking in the light knits her heart to theirs and to the heart of God. 

Something about being there makes the devil's lies obvious and gives the truth more clarity.

She begins to understand what real fellowship is, for there, in the light with God and others, she experiences it. 

//

Have you ever struggled to disclose what is actually going on in your heart? Have you ever struggled to admit to giving in to sin? I know I have. It's not that I'm in denial that it's there (though sometimes that is the case) -but rather that I am afraid what others will say or think. 

Have you ever decided a person was never going to change before giving God a chance to love them through you? I surely have. 

Child of God, what if we could all become a safe place for each other and for others, too -an extension of both God's love and light? 

And what if that person who was always afraid to come to us to share his or her heart became certain that we were a place of healing and freedom for them if they did?

We are meant to be channels through whom God's love, mercy, kindness, and light can flow onto others -even those who are hardest to love and who have sinned against us.

But if we are constantly getting in the way with our own opinions and thoughts about what a person did or thinks, perhaps we too need to step into the light and allow Him to give us freedom from our pride. 

It is only God who can form a one-hundred-percent accurate opinion of someone, for He knows us through and through -and yet, look how He loves. 

It was while we were His enemies, He gave Himself up to death for us. 

As we enter this Christmas season let us ponder the Light of the World coming into darkness to become one of us because of His own Love, knowing who we were, yet rejoicing in who we could become because of Him.

This is what love is, my friends, and we have the privilege of being His channels of light and love in this world of darkness.

P.S. For a more in-depth look at the love of Jesus, read my last post, "What is Love?"