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After many gray days lately, last week the sun came out for a short time again. Swimming under an almost clear blue sky in my favorite outdoor pool, I suddenly got aware of the fact that all human beings, even most animals and plants are drawn toward the visible light. These few sunrays made the water sparkle and glitter both on the surface and underneath. Due to the warm temperature inside (30° C, i.e., 86° F) the pool soon turned into a vapor bath. As the cold Eastern winds blew stronger, playing a funny game with these continually shaping clouds of steam, my heart was rejoicing over the ingenuity of our Creator. It was really an amazing spectacle!  🙂

Okay, I need to admit that I had already written this first paragraph above on December 12th last year. 😉 Nonetheless, after a few weeks filled with trials and tribulation esp. as to my health and, additionally, due to recurring demonic attacks, I made a very similar experience yesterday. If you happen to swim in this outdoor pool directly toward the sunlight, you are blinded completely as the sun is much lower in the sky than in summer. You only see this quickly moving light on the water surface and above somehow illuminated water vapor. What you do NOT see in this direction is someone who might swim there as well. It is only in the very last moment that you see the shadow of a human head arising from nothingness, but still, no face is readily identifiable. However, if you swim into the other direction, the opposite happens: you recognize everyone while they who keep swimming toward the light are blinded like you were before. What was interesting to me was that almost all people with whom I had talked would be happy because of this experience of extreme sunlight. One woman yesterday made an interesting remark. She said, “I was so fed up with these gray days last weekend. Just being here in the sun takes your mind off things.” Aha! That is amazing!  😀 The apostle John told us that,

“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.” (Jn 1:4-5 ESV)

I made similar observations as this woman did when I was forced to stay at home for some time. If I did not pray, my thoughts and worries would always be circling around the same problems that caused nothing but darkness, even ‘death’ in my mind. But these numerous mental re-runs at times seemed to be like inevitable fate to me. So I began to wonder why does God want us to pray to Him?  🙄 It appears to me that whether we approach God out of need by telling Him our prayer requests or if we simply try to spend some time with Him by asking Him to be with us in all that we do, if we invite Him into it all, our mind is taken off this-worldly things and re-directed toward the Eternal, toward the Kingdom of God. Therefore, this approach or prayer can be a step toward and, maybe, even into the eternal light. Jesus said,

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (Jn 8:12 ESV)

And again, the apostle John confirmed the importance of walking in the light by following Jesus here,

“[T]hat which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1 Jn 1:3-7 ESV)

Did you happen to see this? Fellowship in the light means completeness of joy also! Wow!!  😊 Why then should anyone keep walking in the darkness by concealing their sins or by hiding behind a spurious personality?  🙄 We can go to Jesus, always, just like we are right now. There is nothing to fear as we still live in the dispensation of the mercy of God revealed through His Son Jesus Christ.

“Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” (Jn 6:35-37 ESV – emphasis added)

All images by Susanne Schuberth 2016, 2019