When we first moved here to Pepperell, coming home after dark was quite the unsettling experience. Unless we left a light on, the ONLY light we had came from our two doorbell buttons, glowing like eyes in the dark. The house was completely invisible except for these two tiny spikes of light. Since we live with pretty thick woods behind and beside us, you couldn’t help but wonder what kind of critter might be waiting for you when you pulled in the driveway, four legged or two legged. One morning we got up to find raccoon handprints on the kitchen door, and that convinced me we needed to get a barn light.

That was over 3 years ago, and I’ve gotten used to coming home with a monster 150 Watt sodium light turning night to day over our driveway, side yard, and back yard. The light is so strong it even lights up around the other sides of the house where it can’t directly shine. This doesn’t keep the critters away, our raccoon friend has been treed once by our big dog, and on several occasions we’ve seen foxes (cute) and fishers (not so cute!) in our driveway, but overall there is a sense of safety and confidence. When we drag in from being away, we can see what is there to greet us. When I stumble out at 5:00 AM to drive to work, I don’t have to grope my way over to the car. It’s something we have taken for granted.

Thursday night I had to work late, and came home to darkness. Oh, Deniese was in the house reading but the driveway was shockingly black. The light had burned out. It was of course overcast, too, so there was no moonlight to guide me as I parked my car and struggled to the house. As I sit here this Saturday morning writing the bulletin, a glance out my window shows the woods below. They are open, friendly, inviting, since buckets of sunlight are pouring down on them, but in the darkness they are menacing, closed in, intimidating. So guess what I am going to the hardware store today to buy?

I’m not particularly afraid of the dark, I am afraid of what is IN the dark. In my neighborhood, creatures prowl in the dark that would normally steer clear of my house. When I put my little dogs out, there are things that would happily gobble them up. The light keeps them at bay. Having a big black dog doesn’t hurt, either.

In this world of ours, we were all once stumbling around in the dark. There are things, evil things, that thrive in the dark and happily snare us and trick us. When we turn to God, we bring him into our lives. Then his light is there, within us, exposing these evil things. Even to our friends who are not Christians, the light and truth of God that we reflect in our lives us shines out and lets them see they would normally not see. We hope that by living daily as we should that they would also see the benefit of this light from God and want it for themselves. No, it won’t keep ALL the evil away, because some temptations of satan are bolder than others, as he tries desperately to douse that light. He loves the darkness and the freedom it gives him. But when you can SEE a danger, you can fight against it. Imagine a boxing match where one guy – an amateur boxer – is blindfolded while the other guy – a professional boxer – is not. That is what it is like when we thrash about trying to ward off the devil without God’s help. The devil is like a mole, though – he’s so used to the dark that when you shine light on him, he flees. The light hurts his eyes.

Can we take that light for granted? Let us strive never to do so, because indifference to God will snuff that light out! Lost your light and want it back? I know a great hardware store, called the BIBLE. They have everything you’ll ever need, and guess what! They specialize in light!

Randy