The Bungee Cord  10-14-19

Hello,

     I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, Hinsdale, to be specific. As in every metropolitan area, our streets were lined with streetlights to put a damper on the darkness.   So what I thought was dark, was far less dark than the dark that I experience where I currently live, out in the middle of nowhere.  Where I live now, on the darkest of nights the stars glitter the skies with abundance like a cupcake decorated by a child with sparkling sprinkles.

     The other thing about living in the middle of the street-lightless nowhere is that I don’t need to pull any shades when I go to bed.  The darkness from the outside invades my bedroom, and there are no neighbors from whom to hide.  Actually, I enjoy going to bed with the shades open and gazing at the sparkling sky as I make my way into slumber.

     A couple of nights ago when I awoke in the middle of the night I found myself greeted by an intruder, the moonlight.  It was a full moon that was bright enough that the trees were casting their shadows on the hillside and the ridge across from our house was in complete view.  It so happened that the moon was situated in the sky at just the right place that it was shining like a spotlight upon me.  As a matter of fact, when I opened my eyes I was blinded by the light.

     As I lay there, I found the words of the Psalmist (139) brought to light, 

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 darkness is as light to you.  (Psalm 139:11,12)

     I could imagine myself, at that moment,  swallowed up in darkness, having fallen deep into a hole, beaten and bruised, so battered that the air to cry for help not able to escape my lungs.  I could see myself being so squeezed by the darkness that life was oozing out of my pores.  I could feel despair and hopelessness like heavy debris pressing down on my soul.  And then out of nowhere a light, the bright flashlight of a rescuer lasering its way through the darkness and landing upon my face, blinding me.  And in that blinding a sudden flood of hope, a flood of hope coming from a voice yelling, “I found him!”

     When I hear Jesus talk about searching for one lamb, or one coin, I hear Jesus speak of himself much like one of those sent in to find a person after an earthquake has shattered life.  I hear him speaking of himself, “the light of the world”, searching every dark and hidden hole for the one that he loves.  And I hear the delight in his voice upon casting his light into one of the holes and discovering the one for whom he is searching.  “I found him!  I found her!”

     If you live out in the middle of nowhere, I suspect that you have experienced the searing power of the full moon on a pitch black night, but if you live where street lights are plentiful, I hope that this Bungee Cord has captured your imagination, so that you might discover, as I did on the night of which write, the determination of our Lord to find you when the world and its darkness come crashing down on you.  And even more than that, I hope that you might discover the joy that fills the universe when Jesus has found you……and this is for certain, no darkness will keep you from him, and he will find you!

“Even the darkness is light to you.”

Have a great week,

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger