Last week in my reflection with St Michael’s Uniting Church, I felt moved by the scriptures to declare that Darkness simply IS, as is Light. Dark is not evil, nor light good. They just are facts of the presence or absence of a light source. We have so built the dark/light | bad/good dichotomy into our mindset that all you need do is look up the words black and white in any dictionary and you’ll see the negative assumptions in the word black and the positive assumptions in the word white. The Psalmists tell us that the Divine is in both. In both. We need both light and shadow. But the reaction to what I considered a simple message was so strong from some people (positively and personally meaningful) that I was floored. I therefore share this with you, in case you, like many last Sunday, have found yourself in a dark place and considered that you were alone and that God wasn’t/isn’t with you. Divine Love is with you no matter where you are.
I brought the below painting, Darkness is as Light, to illustrate my own places. The left is the darkness of my childhood where I was able to see places of presence and dwell in them, the middle is my own shadow (one of last week’s listeners said it reminded them of Jung’s shadow side wisdom), and the right is the life from the buried grain - resurrection light. Here’s the painting. Here’s the reflection.
