Choir Notes

Light of Life
From Music and the Spoken Word
Delivered By: Lloyd D. Newell • Program 4203

Something within us loves light. We need light for life. Both physically and spiritually, we thrive when we see and feel the light. Who doesn’t feel drawn to a window, not just for the view it affords, but especially for the light it invites?

The natural world shows how essential light is to life. Delicate flowers push their way through the darkness of the cold, hard soil just to drink from the sun’s warm light. Spring’s bold display of blossoms is a direct response to longer days of more direct light.

In ancient times, people were more dependent on natural light than we are today. And when the sun went down, they could not simply flip a switch or press a button to illuminate their dwellings.

Long ago, early on that first Easter morning, “it was yet dark” when Mary went to the garden tomb (see John 20:1). The darkness in the world around her was likely easier to bear than the darkness and emptiness she felt in her heart. Soon the sun would rise, however, and soon the Light of Life would illuminate her soul.

In a sense, each of us walks a part of life’s journey in the dark. But each step of faith leads to more light, more reason to believe, greater cause to hope, until we finally find the Light of Life. As the Psalmist said, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105).

The more we yearn for the Light of Life, the more our spirits, like the flowers of spring, blossom with the fruits of faith: peace, joy, love, and hope. Without the light that shines in darkness, we could not gather “fruit unto life eternal” (John 4:36). We could not feel the light of everlasting life.