Day 31 – Darkness

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. (1Corinthians 13: 11-12)

 

Darkness actually expands our vision and sensitivity: we see much further at night. Without regular sight of that vast wilderness above us, we are impoverished and fall prey to strange assumptions about ourselves. Darkness also helps to interpret the light. Every artist knows how closely dark and shade must work with light if a face is to be revealed in its fullness and depth. The dim, foggy vision of which Paul speaks is not the failure of faith. Rather, it flows from faith. It may even be our greater witness to this world that we do not know or see clearly. Testimony is not to what we know. It is to the mystery of a vision and purpose for this world that is God’s alone. To live there, our capacity for unknowing must be infinite.

(Extract from Dust & Glory by David Runcorn)

 

Prayer

Lord, help me to deepen my capacity to contain unknowing and to walk in the dark with you.

 

Remember in Prayer

Those whose way is unclear; those who feel overwhelmed by dark thoughts; those who yearn to see light at the end of the tunnel.