A Study in Contrast - Part I

                                                                             

source

I think these Easter eggs are so adorable - I have never thought to draw on them to make silhouettes but I love them.  Beyond that, I think they represent such an amazing concept of contrast and the difference between dark and light, black and white, the ability to differentiate details and even see with your eyes where to go.

With that in mind, today I want to look at black.  I want to break from all the images of the things that are so fleeting in this life, the things that can be gone in an instant, the homes that can burn down, the clothes that can be stolen or ruined, the creative people that come and go, the fleetingness of nothingness that we so cling to but in reality slips through our fingers like sand and fools us into thinking we have a rock we are grasping.

source

I think the image above is a perfect illustration of darkness.  It is dark - but that is black.  It can feel desperate, anxious, a squinting of the eyes in search for a light, sometimes a small light.  A calling out for details, direction, and help.  Have you ever been here?  Does any of this sound familiar.  It obviously is something I have been through or I wouldn't be able to describe the chains that have clung to my wrists that keep me bound to my selfish desires for more and never enough.  It's a panic search for the exit only to realize you are stuck in a box.  You try every door and turn every knob in hopes that one door, one knob will be the answer.  It's like someone has your heart and you want it back, you want the key only to realize the key is accessible, it's in your grasp, you only have to see it.

Wait, there it is, a small light shining on a key.  The key that unlocks the chains you are in, the key that unlocks the heart of coal and opens the door to freedom.  It's exciting, it's hopeful, it's a chance to escape and never look back.  The only thing I must do is take the key and use it.  Unlock the chains, I'm not really bound to them unless I chose to be, unlock my heart of coal and replace it with a sponge of love and joy and contentment, release myself from this lie I'm sitting in and exchange my prison cell clothes for a beautiful white dress.  Leave the darkness and enter the light.    

Now I can see, He is waiting for me.

He buried himself in the darkness and took on the night so He could shine that flashlight on the key.  He dipped down his great arm and scooped up my sinful soul so I could be free.

Where would I be without that light, without that key, without He.

HE is Christ, He took on death so I don't have to live in the depths of the darkness, wondering about this earth unable to truly see where I am going and what I am doing.

Now I can see, the height, the breath, the width, the length of His great love for me.  

For YOU. 

Why else would he enter the darkness and destroy it for the sake of His own if He did not love.  

LOVE IS WHAT HE DID

LOVE IS WHAT HE IS

LOVE IS WHAT HE HAS FOR YOU AND ME

Happy GOOD Friday - He may not have risen on this day but He defeated the darkness so I could live on this day.  Will I continue to daily die for Him?  Oh, it's so hard, but Please Lord help me to chose you over me.  Will you die to yourself, to the lie that you are the better choice and enter the truth of His love that He has a better life designed and chosen for you.  Don't be deceived by the darkness anymore, it can't shed light on the truth until find the key, so look for the flashlight.  It's there, sometimes you have to search for it but He is shining it in your life somewhere.  Don't stop till you see it and don't stop till you use the key.  Make the choice to believe who holds the flashlight and let yourself free - you will never, never want to go back to black again.  White is all you will want to see.

"I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." 

John 12:46

"This is what the Lord says-he who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the  earth and all that comes out of it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it:

"I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand.  I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness."

Isaiah 42:5-7

"Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway.  For whoever finds me, finds life and receives favor from the Lord."

Proverbs 8:34-35

"Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.  See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you."
Isaiah 60:1-2