Out of Darkness Into Light
By Vernette Kureck
“But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.”
1 John 1:7
My, how things have changed! Recently, I was at the local bookstore perusing the shelves of young reading for kids when I came upon the old familiar book “Dick and Jane”… except it was revised to “Dick and Jane and the Vampire”! Learning to read opens the whole world up to children.By Vernette Kureck
“But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.”
1 John 1:7
Everywhere you look right now, vampires seem to be quite the cultural phenomenon. Vampires are corpses which rise in the darkness to feed off the blood of living creatures. They need this life source to exist. There is something deeply captivating about the universal themes of life-giving blood, good and evil, choice and free will, the light of day and the darkness of night.
As Christ-followers, our hearts resonate with every one of those themes. With a particularly keen sense of the sacred, we read the Apostle Paul’s words about Jesus’ last night before His death: “On the night Jesus was betrayed, he took bread, and when he had given thanks he broke it and said, ‘This is my body which is for you, do this in remembrance of me.’ He also took the cup and said, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me.’” (1 Cor. 11:24-26).
In John 6:53-56, Jesus Himself says, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.” In essence, He’s using an analogy: “Just as you take food and drink within your body and it becomes a part of you, so you must receive Me within your innermost being so that I can give you life.” (1)
Only through the precious shedding of the Savior’s blood are we purified from the evil of sin. Jesus, the perfect Lover of our souls, offers us the choice of eternal good, as well as a way to come out of the darkness and to live as light. Our children need to understand that truth as much as we do. As believers, we can live in a dark world as long as we’re not using a dimmer switch!
GOING DEEPER:
1. Thank Jesus for being the Light and ask Him to expose any area of darkness in your life.
2. Do you have any young women in your life with whom you could discuss these biblical truths?
FURTHER READING:
2 Cor. 6:14-16
Vernette and her husband Ken have two sons and seven grandchildren. When she’s not “grandparenting,” she’s busy as Oakwood Church’s financial secretary.
(1) Warren W. Wiersbe, The Wiersbe Bible Commentary, New Testament, p. 251.
