Thursday, 13 March

Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. Genesis 1:3

Yet I am writing you a new commandment that is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.1 John 2:8

As spring approaches we look forward to longer days, and those light, hopefully warm, summer evenings. Gone will be the long, dark nights of winter when many of us would prefer to stay indoors rather than venture out.

And yet, some of us prefer the darkness.

I recall a while ago when the street lights in Chorlton were being replaced, someone saying to me that they would rather have the old lights that gave off less light.

A few years ago, the island of Sark was designated as the world’s first ‘Dark Sky Island’, they have no light pollution because there are no streetlights, something the islanders strive to maintain. The views of the clear night-skies are amazing.

Psalm 139: 11-13 says: ‘If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night”, even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for the darkness is as light to you.’

We cannot hide from God, not even in the heights or depths of the heavens or the earth, which may feel rather scary, but the previous verses of the psalm tell us that wherever we are ‘God’s hand will guide us, God’s right hand will hold us fast’, which is very reassuring.

In creating God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. Jesus came as the Light of the world. God’s light has always been, and always will be.

Thanks be to God, for life and love and light. Amen.

Deacon Lyn Gallimore 

Chorlton Methodist/Manley Park Methodist Church