“He appointed twelve—designating them apostles—that they might be with him…” (Mark 3:14a).

Take a minute to think about how our eyes adjust to light after being in a dark room. 

Now imagine that the light we must adjust to is BRIGHT. Really, really BRIGHT. We would run back into that dark room to hunker down, wouldn’t we? We would hide our eyes. We would whimper—or scream— “Too much!”

Had God just shown up on planet Earth in all His glory, that’s what would have inevitably happened. Therefore, because of His great compassion—paired with His longing for us to know Him and His great love—He came gently. He came as one of us. He walked around in a particular place, at a particular time in history, among a particular people. 

God showed us what His Kingdom looked like by encapsulating it in a human life lived in radical self-surrender, all-encompassing love, unlimited wisdom, unimaginable mercy, extravagant grace… There’s no end to the wonderful descriptors of Jesus’ way among us. 

Even that one Person was too bright for many, so more accommodations were made. 

Jesus assembled a group of disciples so they would see what community could look like with Jesus at the center. Their eyes adjusted a bit. Jesus taught them Kingdom truths. Their eyes adjusted a bit more. In fits and starts, they began putting these teachings into practice among themselves. Their eyes adjusted again. Jesus sent them out to illumine others. 

With all this, Isaiah’s prophecy was being fulfilled: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”

Even after all these years of Jesus’ Light shining on us, we are still prone to hide our eyes. This is true even, and maybe especially, since we were born in an era when human reasoning is the brightest light we’ve squintingly allowed in. 

That is why Jesus communities who have let The Light shine in and through them are on the front lines. That is why it is imperative we not get distracted by dim lights posing as ways to understand, ways to succeed, ways to govern, ways to be. 

One way to determine if we have adjusted to the true Light of the World is to consider whether “the littlest, the least, the last and the lost, the wounded and maimed and those who wound and maim, those who have in themselves neither hope nor a future—which is all of us if we only face up to it” *  are enfolded into our local community of Light.

How are you doing with adjusting your eyes to the Light? How do you think we at CCC are doing with this?

*Quote adapted from Brian and Kathy Emmet’s Connect Devotional “Reading with the Wounded,” April 23, 2021.