Taking advantage of a long college weekend, a friend and I drove to Kentucky to hike in Mammoth Cave National Park. We joined a tour and wound our way through the cave until, 140 feet below the surface, we entered the Rotunda Room, one of the largest open areas in this massive underground network. After a short talk, our tour guide requested we turn off all lights and to be completely silent, so to sense total darkness. It was, in a word, scary. After seemingly too long a pause, the ranger pierced the silence with his voice and asked someone to light a match. The soft glow from this one small source sparked as much amazement as relief, for it reached the entire room.
“In the beginning,” we read, “God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep.”1 In the complete absence of light, this must have been a blackness the extreme of which humankind has never known, suffocatingly frightening were we to experience it. What, then, did God do to dispel such darkness? He spoke. “‘Let there be light,’” He said, “and there was light.”2 King David marvels with us at the thought, “The Lord merely spoke, and the heavens were created, He breathed the word, and all the stars were born.”3 When there were no earthly creatures to hear Him, God yet spoke. Though there were no tympanic membranes vibrating from divine soundwaves, still God spoke, and what He commanded came to be.
What, then, do we make of One who speaks something into nothingness, only for nothingness to yield that something in return? What kind of power must He wield, and what kind of wisdom must He possess? Regarding His word, the Lord promises, “it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”4 For God speaks more than opinions, more than ideas, more than answers to the demands of others. God commands in authority and creation obeys Him; He judges in understanding and His pronouncements are established.
And just as God dispelled with a word the darkness at creation, so also does He speak light and life into the deepest caverns of our soul. Of Jesus through whom God created all things, John writes, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.”5 God does something no one else can do: He speaks light into our darkness. How amazing! What a relief.
“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”6
Lord Jesus, how can we thank You for speaking light into our darkness, and life into our soul? We, in turn, speak Your praise, for You are worthy. Amen.
1 Genesis 1:1-2
2 Genesis 1:3
3 Psalm 33:6 NLT, emphasis added
4 Isaiah 5:11
5 John 1:4
6 John 8:12
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Paul Nordman—Author 