Daily Affirmations - Day 1- In the Darkness Shining: City on a Hill
- Alisa B.
- 47 minutes ago
- 3 min read
This week's Theme: In the Darkness Shining
Day 1: City on a Hill
Jesus said, “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden” (Matthew 5:14 - NKJV).
Growing up in the Caribbean in my generation, I knew little of Halloween besides what I read in books or saw in later years on television. I knew virtually nothing of Halloween costumes or of neighborhood trick or treat walks that had long since been divested of all trick in favor of treat.
I knew nothing of houses and yards decorated with ghosts and ghouls, witches and goblins, spiders and spooks. But at least I did know about Jack-o'-lanterns. Well... sort of.
Jack-o'-lanterns, or, to be more colloquially precise— "Jack-lanterns", were, for us, not the carved pumpkins of North American Halloween celebrations. Although the Jack-lanterns of our culture share commonality in origin with the Jack-o'-lanterns of Halloween— both are rooted in old traditions and superstitions from Britain and Ireland— they are not the same.
Perhaps because of practical concerns about wasting food (I am speculating here!), the tradition of hollowing out pumpkins or other vegetables did not carry over to our culture. Instead, our Jack-Lanterns retained more of an association with the "ghost lights" of old folklore.
Ignis fatuus, Latin for "foolish fire", was the term used to describe the strange lights encountered by travelers of old in the marshes, swamps and bogs of the British and Irish countryside. Today the widely held scientific explanation is that decaying organic matter in these wet areas combust and form sparks. But in the absence of this knowledge, superstitions and "ghost lights" meshed into the mythical character known as Jack-o'-lantern.
And even into my times, in "Village"— the name of the section of my village where I grew up (go figure!)— the mysterious lights from the direction of "Firebun" wove their way into many a spooky tale. Slightly less terrifying than "Jumbees" or ghosts, "ole hegs" or soukkees", Jack-lanterns nevertheless became part of the spine-chilling stories and superstitions fueled and fed under pitch-black night skies in the absence of electricity.
It didn't matter that my parents told us that the mysterious Jack-lantern lights were the glow of phosphorus from cow dung; it was difficult not to be triggered into fear and unease by the bizarre and outrageous tales generally categorized as "Jumbee stories". I can only now recognize them as bizarre and outrageous through the lens of maturity.
I was thinking that in a spiritual sense maturity is also required to evaluate the "strange lights" and foolish fire of our times. The apostle John gives us some help by describing a true light that is quite different from foolish fire:
Whoever claims to live in [God] must live as Jesus did. Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard.
Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.
Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble (1 John 2:6-10).
Barnes' commentary provides an explanation of the text:
The ancient systems of error, under which people hated each other, have passed away, and you are brought into the light of the true [faith in Jesus]. Once you were in darkness, like others; now the light of the pure gospel shines around you, and that requires, as its distinguishing characteristic, love. [Faith in God] is often represented as light; and Christ spoke of Himself, and was spoken of, as the Light of the world.
Jesus gave us the charge to reflect His light: Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16 - NIV). Will the Savior's church today reflect the true light, shining in the darkness with deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom? (James 3:13). Or will we emit the foolish fire of the bog and the swamp?
