One of the great advances of history is clean water. Knowing that the water you drink is free of harmful organisms and very likely will not get you sick or worse makes a huge difference in quality of life. Clean, safe water was not always a given in the past.
And it’s not always a given everywhere now either. In some places of the world families still need to purify the water themselves in some way before they are confident of putting it in their bodies. One way to do that is through ultraviolet light. On their own, traveling down the dark tubes of water supplies or directly from a dark well, all the little pathogens survive and thrive. But if they are forced to pass through an area of UV waves, the bacteria, viruses and other organisms are deactivated and become harmless to our digestive systems.
There are two ways to look at the light. For the pathogens, the light is not good. It spells the end of their limited function on earth. For the human being drinking the water, the light is a big blessing.
The gospel of John also brings out those two views on light and darkness. Those who prefer evil would much rather stay in the darkness.
19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. (John 3:19-20)
If evil is generally our lifestyle, of course, we don’t want any light shone on our behavior. And even if we as Christians in weakness fall into temptation, often our first instinct is not to want our weakness to be seen.
In Christ we welcome the light! Although it does expose our sins, we are thankful that the Word convicts us. We can recognize our wrongs in the knowledge that our Savior still accepts us in our repentance and faith, and gives us forgiveness by his grace on the cross. And his light of salvation purifies us completely of all unrighteousness so we can live in the light of his glory in heaven.
Love the light! Celebrate the light that shines on you in Christ!