L I G H T

 "Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. 
 God spoke: “Light
 And light appeared.
God saw that light was good
and separated light from dark."

I love teaching the Bible to kids. 

I suppose that's why I went to school to be a kids pastor. 

I love it because almost always when I am figuring out how to make big, God ideas understandable for little ones, He reveals new things and reminds me of beautiful, timeless truths. 

It's the scriptures that we've read a thousand times before that are packed with hidden treasures waiting to be discovered. We only need to be willing to let the words come to life. God's words that have always been alive, His words that gave life and light to our very existence. 

I just started teaching the Creation story to my classroom of three-year-olds. 

Some Mexican and Christian. 

Some Korean and I'm not sure. 

Some full fledged Hindi. 

ALL God's children. 

Every single one of them He longs to be in relationship with.

Every single one of them, God has put in my care in this place for this season. 

 I could not begin to tell you why that is so...I ask myself and Him every single day. 

But here we are. 

And in between the hard moments, this little idea tugs at me reminding me that a generation from three different nations is represented in my classroom. Children who may not have been introduced to the light of Jesus had they remained in their native lands. 

For some reason, I have been given the responsibility and the extreme honor of introducing them to Jesus and His Word. 

Oh Lord, may I never take that lightly. 

I love teaching creation because it's incredible to think of something coming from nothing. 

No matter how old you are, that idea and that thought process is fascinating. 

The idea that someone had the creativity to think up and design and give life to everything I see today is mind boggling. In a wonderful way. 

So today we talked about God creating light. 

Every single time I revisit this chunk of scripture, I am re-captivated. 

When we think of light, we often think of the sun. The sun is our largest reference point for light. Our source of light and life on earth. 

What we fail to realize is that before there was the sun, there was light. 

According to this scripture, God simply spoke the word "light" into the thickest, emptiest, blackest darkness and everything changed. 

Before there was the sun or the moon or the stars, when there was only darkness and God's presence, still there was light. And the light was what invaded the darkness, not the other way around. And the light did not have a source other than God's creative, powerful voice and His eternal presence. 

Today my heart was encouraged by the thought that no darkness, despite how heavy or black, or empty it may feel, is too dark for God's light to overcome. In fact, the darker the better because the brighter His light will shine. If God is present in my life and in my circumstances, then His light is present also. The sun of course is still shining even when we only see the dark, moonlit night. He is much the same. He is ever shining despite the thick darkness that we perceive. Even if the sun and all of it's light were to fall out of the sky and burn up in the abyss, still there would be God and thus still there would be light. 

We do not simply serve a God who created the star that makes life on this planet possible for all of us.  We serve the God who shaped and lit the sun with His very hands. The God who is bigger and brighter than the biggest and brightest star we can imagine. The God who was light in the darkness just by being present. The God who is eternal and unchanging. 

The God who has the power to light your darkest nights with His presence and a simple word. 

His Words are life. 

His Words are light. 

I promise you that if He can speak the word that lit the Universe, He can most certainly speak the words that will light your present darkness. 

Ask Him to be present. 

Ask Him to speak light into your darkest places today. 

Let Him be light.