The prologue to the gospel according to John is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful parts of scripture. The poetry of it and the way it rolls off your tongue is just so beautiful. "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God." Wow! Scholars think that this prologue predated John’s gospel. It may have been a hymn that people sang to pass on their beliefs about Christ. John then took that hymn and used it as a beginning point for his gospel.

As I was studying this passage, I was struck by how it refers to Christ. The words Jesus and Christ only appear once in this passage, even though it is all telling us about who Christ is. Most of the passage refers to Christ as either the Word or as light (true light). As I was reading this passage on a particularly dreary day, the idea of Christ as light coming into the world struck me.

I recently read Christopher Paolini’s new book Brisingr. At the beginning of the book, Eragon and his brother, Roran set off to rescue Roran’s finacee who was captured by some evil beings. She has been in their cave-like lair for about a month when Eragon and Roran set off to rescue her. While there, she is locked in a cell with no windows and is kept in total darkness.

Since this event happens in the first few pages of the novel, I can tell you that Eragon and Roran defeat the evil beings and rescue Roran’s finacee. Only once they bring her out of the lair into the sunlight, she shies away from the light. She had been kept in the dark for so long that it was difficult, even painful for her to be in the sunlight. Rather than retreat back into the cave, she wraps her head in a cloth to filter out some of the sunlight and eventually her eyes adjust to the sun and she is able to see again.

When we have been in darkness for so long, it can be difficult to adjust to being in the light again. Like coming out of a darkened movie theatre into the mid-day sun. It can be confusing to all of a sudden be thrust into the bright sunlight.

When I was growing up, I was very active in ballet. When we had our performances, the older girls got to have the special dressing rooms in the nicer part of the theatre. One of the major features of these dressing rooms was the huge lighted mirror. Now when you look in a mirror, you see your reflection and you notice what hair is out of place but when you looked in one of these huge mirrors, you saw every flaw. The 100+ watt bulbs showed up everything. It was almost easier to just put on your make-up with a hand mirror rather than have to face the huge mirror and see everything lit up in stark light. The light would show up any flaw.

In the darkness we can still hide some of the blemishes but in those bright lights, any imperfection showed through. Sometimes, it’s easier to stay in the darkness than to face up to all that will be shown in the light.

One of the final scenes in C.S. Lewis’ The Last Battle, the final book in the Chronicles of Narnia, talks about light. As Lucy and her siblings are preparing to leave Narnia, they come across a stable door. When they pass through the door they are bathed in glorious sunlight and find themselves in a field full of wildflowers. [There is a lot of symbolism about it being a stable door that they pass through.] A little while later, a group of Dwarfs comes into the stable but they don’t see the beautiful field and the bright sunlight. Instead, they believe themselves to be in a dark stable. They gather around in a tight circle and listen to hear if anyone is approaching.

Lucy and her friends approach the Dwarfs and try to befriend them and get them to realize that they are not in a dark stable but instead are bathed in bright, beautiful sunlight. Lucy says to the Dwarfs, "It isn’t dark…Can’t you see? Look up! Look round! Can’t you see the sky and the trees and the flowers? Can’t you see me?"

One of the Dwarfs responds, "How in the name of all Humbug can I see what ain’t there? And how can I see you any more than you can see me in this pitch darkness?"

Lucy tries even harder to get the dwarfs to open their eyes to the light that surrounds them but they refuse, saying that they are not going to be taken in. Even Aslan (a symbol for Christ in the Narnia novels) himself appears to the Dwarfs and they refuse to see him. They believe his roar is some piece of machinery that another group of people in the stable have created to scare them. When a feast or rich food and wine is set in front of them they eat it but only taste hay and dirty water.

Aslan then explains to Lucy the predicament that the Dwarfs find themselves in. "You see, they will not let us help them. They have chosen cunning instead of belief. Their prison is only in their own minds, yet they are in that prison; and so afraid of being taken in that they cannot be taken out."

Sometimes it can be very tempting to remain in darkness rather than to be transformed by the light. If we plan on living a life in the light, we have to adjust to the light and allow ourselves to be changed by it. John tells us that some of the people that Christ came to did not receive him. "But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God." Isn’t that what it means to live in the light? Doesn’t it mean to be transformed by God? Doesn’t it mean to become children of God?

But it can be scary to think about becoming God’s children. After all, we kind of got used to the way we were in the dark. It was every person for themselves. It was, "I’ve got mine, you have to get your own." It was, "take care of your own and don’t worry about anyone else." But to live in the light, to live as children of God, means that we have to change. Just like Roran’s fiancée had to adjust and adapt to the sunlight, we also have to adapt to what it means to live in the light. To live in the light as children of God means that we are all family. We all have to look out for each other and see the needs surrounding us.

It can be difficult to make the adjustment to living in the light. Shelley Copeland stated, "In the light, we can better see things as they really are, and we can see truth placed before us." When we open our eyes to the light surrounding us, we can see the glory of Christ, full of grace and truth.

The question we then have to ask ourselves is would we rather remain in darkness, like the Dwarfs in Narnia, full of cunning and suspicion? Would we want to live life where great food placed before us tastes like hay and dirty water? Would we want to live only looking out for ourselves and imprisoning ourselves within our own narrow experience?

Or would we prefer to adjust to the light that surrounds us, knowing that in it all of our flaws will be revealed and nothing can be hidden? But even as our flaws are revealed as though in a lighted mirror, we are given the greatest gift, grace. So what’s it going to be: a life lived in darkness, full of cunning and suspicion, or a life in the light, full of grace and truth?