While my husband and I were visiting some famous caves one day, we reached a large open area where we were told to stand still while the guide switched off the lights. The darkness was intense. Even when our eyes had become accustomed to it, we could not see the person next to us! Then the guide touched the switch and we could again see.
I have found this a helpful metaphor in dealing with another kind of darkness—the suffering of pain, sickness, fear, sorrow, loneliness, and so on. These may seem very real, almost overwhelming at times, but there is a light that will eliminate them. Through prayer we can become so conscious of God's presence that these dark visions dissolve. To gain this light requires us to deepen our understanding of God and of man, His spiritual idea.
In the record of creation given in the first chapter of Genesis we read, "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light."Gen. 1:3. This light precedes the creation of the sun, moon, and stars. Isn't the Bible telling us that the true source of light is God and that God's light is spiritual, not material, illumination? Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health: "Truth and Love enlighten the understanding, in whose 'light shall we see light;' and this illumination is reflected spiritually by all who walk in the light and turn away from a false material sense."Science and Health, p. 510.
