I enjoy working in my yard. Mowing the lawn. Tending to the flowers. Pruning the trees. Providing water and nourishment so that the plants will grow strong and healthy. Maybe it's a spark of the divine, a bit of God's own joy of creating that resides in me.

 

But I have this problem area. Thick shadows cover the small patch, preventing sunlight from reaching the plants. The grass is scraggy. The flowers droop. The trees are filled with dead limbs. I may find it a cool little haven, but for my plants it's more a shadow of death.

 

What they need is sunlight and that would require a lot of work. So I cave. I give up and instead allow it to remain a "natural" area---a few bales of pine straw here, several bags of mulch there, with moss covered rocks scattered about. No attention required. I forget about it. And it remains a dark place.

 

Life can be like that. Most things may be going well, tended to with careful attention, growing in a godly way. But there's that one problem area. Something blocks the Son. His light doesn't penetrate the shadow. Nothing good blossoms.

 

To change would require a lot of work. So we cave. We give up, allowing this part of our lives to remain "natural"---weeds suffocating any good from growing, neglect hardening our hearts, with broken stones ready to trip us. No attention is given. We forget about it. And it remains a dark place.

 

Sad, isn't it? We have access to the Light of the world who can shine through every part of our lives, yet there are areas we allow to remain dark and hidden. Terrible places we wish never existed. Perhaps a few we are simply not willing to give up.

 

But here's the thing. Jesus said that if we ignore those dark places and allow them to remain, the darkness will grow until it has spread throughout our lives. Except by the power of His light, the darkness cannot be contained.

 

If your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! Matthew 6:23

 

But some parts of our lives are so dark, the issues so great, how can we possibly bring His light into such darkness? The answer is simple---we can't. We cannot bring His light. Instead, we must receive it. See the difference?

 

It is not our power or authority that drives darkness from our lives, but God's. We need His light, not that of our own making. And His light will penetrate the shadow in our lives. Centuries ago, God instructed a man to proclaim His promise to you and me:

 

There will be no more darkness for those in despair. God humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but He will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan-the people walking in darkness will see a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light will dawn. (see Isaiah 9:1-2)

 

Hundreds of years later, Jesus was born. He lived in Capernaum, in Galilee by the Sea, near the land of Zebulun and Naphtali.