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All of us have experienced at some time in our life, the experience of finding ourselves in complete darkness. As a young person, I can remember being dropped off at the gate, late at night, to walk the one kilometre track to home. In the country of course, there are no lights visible. I had walked that track hundreds of times before in daylight, and of course was sure the walk would be a breeze. What a shock! As soon as the car lights had disappeared, total darkness enveloped me, not a star in the sky, not a light anywhere to give a direction. What a frightening experience. Hands stretched out in front, feet shuffling to try to hear if one was still on gravel, stumbling and kicking every stone and dip. This experience has probably been shared by us all. What a relief when from behind me appeared a dim torch light, from an almost flat battery, as my brother rode his bike home-ward and I was then able to jog behind him and arrive home safe and sound. Unfamiliar and unrelieved darkness can be frightening and even a dangerous thing. As I reflect on this experience, it now dawns on me how little light we need in pitch darkness, to lift our spirits, take away our fears, and give us direction. We all experience this with a black-out on a pitch-black night. We have no direction, we bump into everything and get confused, but as soon as a candle is found and lit, what a difference it makes, just like that bike lamp did. These lights do not flood-light the whole area, they do not instantly take away all the darkness, but they illuminate the immediate area sufficiently for us to get our feet moving in the right direction.

Our text tells us that ‘The Lord is My Lamp’. It does not declare Him as a bright light, but my lamp to cover my darkness. The Bible is the Word of God, and Jesus Christ became that living word and become our Lord. The Bible is very much like the lights we have written about. It doesn’t light up everything instantly. It doesn’t provide all the answers at once, but it does give enough light to let us see the right path we tread, and it will, if we use it to strengthen our faith in the Lord, as our lamp, lighten the way that will lead us to find our way home.