This blog is contributed by Patty Ayres, member of 6.30pm church and keen blogger - see Christian Pears for more stuff.
Hey! So there’s a lot going on at the moment. If I was trying to block it out, that’s been made harder by the government invading my YouTube homepage, Instagram homepage and sending me text messages during the week. My escape has become a never-ending reminder of what I’m trying to escape! So, for a couple of minutes, please join with me in looking at good news that comes to us in the midst of darkness.
“In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:4-5.
You truly only appreciate how strong light is the darker it is around you, for instance when you get a notification on your phone after you’ve gone to bed and have a mild heart attack. The darker it gets, the brighter light seems to shine. This is the most true when it comes to Jesus. In the midst of our darkness, God hasn’t changed and it has been so encouraging to see how Christians are banding together in different ways under our one sovereign Lord. In all honesty, I haven’t made it to an 8:00 meeting yet, but my Dad has been. He’s been so encouraged by seeing people in truly raw, early morning stages, no make up or fakery. What a way to start the day, by coming before the Lord and acknowledging that we truly need him. I’ve been praying more with my uni friends (later on in the day), and I know a couple of other people have been moved to read their Bibles more, pray with their small groups or give someone a call of encouragement.
“There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.” John 1:6-8
Being light also applies to us as Christians. I recently wrote the subtitles for a super boring documentary about the Gay Head Lighthouse in Massachusetts (a word I can spell now), and the best thing I gleaned from it is that the people hired to take care of the beacon and look for shipwrecks were called “keepers of the light”. They polished their Fresnel lens every day, all of its prisms, so that one sailor said it was “almost as good as seeing your wife” when they came close to home! In the case of a wreck, those keepers sounded the alarm to row boats out and rescue those helplessly clinging to the masts of their boats, wrecked on “Devil’s Bridge”. About 150 years later, the lighthouse is still there.
Last week, I decided to take the plunge and ask a non-Christian friend if she needed prayer for anything. Sure, I had been praying about her, but this was a moment to step into her darkness and pray for her. She shared so vulnerably, and then a couple of days later, I kid you not, she said she had been employed by a man whose daughter has to stay home from school. He’s paying her to tutor his daughter but her school requires she does devotionals leading up to Easter, so my friend straight away knew who to ask! I sent her some really solid devotionals, glad she hadn’t just turned to Google and that I could share with her. God is faithful.
“Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” John 1:12-13
Ultimately, although we have light for our time on earth and we can be that light for others, the best news is that we have heaven to hope for. I’ve seen a few things on social media trying to find silver linings in the midst of the darkness. Because people are staying at home, there were blue skies in parts of Hong Kong often swamped by smog, the waters of Venice are running clear and crime is down around the world. However, these statistics might seem like hollow hope for those who are at home because they’ve lost their jobs, don’t have resources and are worried about their futures. Thankfully, we serve a God who has good news even for the poor (Luke 4:18-19).
Our good news doesn’t last for a few days, or finish when we’re all back at work and uni.
Our good news isn’t limited to two people, or our household, or our suburb, it is for everyone.
Our good news will last forever and ever.
I heard the story of a lady recently who wanted to be shown at her funeral viewing, and buried, with a fork. She said when she was a little girl, she was always told to “save her fork” at dinner, which was a sign to her that something better was coming, there was something else to look forward to. So, when she passed away, she wanted everyone to know that she was saving her fork as a sign that she knew she was looking forward to something so, so much better. Death is not the end, and nothing is outside of our God’s control in this world or the next.
So here ends our first week of Some Joyful Mentions! If you have good stories from your week, have received good news, please let me know, as I’ll be writing a few blog posts in the future and I’d love to spread the encouragement around. However, let me take a moment to acknowledge that not all news is good right now (the only reason I’m freed up for writing is because a few things I was looking forward to have been cancelled). If you need prayer, financial assistance, resources or a chat, please also send the church ministers a message and someone (possibly me, lol) will get back to you.