Chase Light

I’m ashamed to admit this, but growing up I was very acquainted with roaches. And, I’m not talking about the little small ones, but the big, fat, ones that fly! I think they are called, “water bugs.” Picture below:

Searching for pictures online, brought back horrible memories and made my skin crawl many times. Anyway, I was afraid of them, especially walking into a dark room. It seemed they lived in darkness. It was rare they would scurry into the room while I had the light on, but if I walked into a dark room, flicked on the light; they would scatter. If I was lucky, the roach would run in my opposite direction. Yet, I was rarely lucky (at least my memory of it). It would take off in an awkward, out of control flight, and I would scream, in fear, like a 5 year old girl! Truth: Roaches would rather hide in darkness and exposure to light sends them running!

Here’s the contrast. We didn’t live in a great neighborhood growing up, so we had 3 locks on the front door to our home, from the outside – a deadbolt, the door knob lock, and a latch-lock with a dangling padlock. After evening church, our whole family would exit the car, run to the porch of our home and wait while mom or dad commenced the routine of unlocking our home. Part of that routine was to battle the moths that would kamikaze our heads! You see, the porch light was on and moths are attracted to the light. I don’t really understand why, but they are. Inevitably, when we walked in the door, a moth would slip in with us. As soon as we turned on the light to the room, guess what happened? The moth would fly right to the bulb – pinging the bulb with relentless passion!  And do you know what else might happen if a roach were there? That’s right it would run. Interesting huh? Two insects. Two different responses to the light.

John 3:19-“And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”

The Light should draw us closer to Itself – passionately enough that we would give up our life to chase It.