When a child, we waited for the lamp lighter to come and light the gas street lamp. It was very dark down our lane, the houses pre-dated Queen Victoria and electricity didn’t arrive to the street lamps until the late 1950s-1960s.
It took time for one man to get all the lamps lit, so the fortunate ones had their lamps shining before the Sun finally said good night to us, and some found that the night fell too soon and darkness overtook them.
The street lamps meant older children could carry on playing after school games in the safety of the pool of light cast by the lamp and that grown ups could navigate the narrow entries between the houses safely, often by torchlight even then.
Praise God for light, starlight, sunlight, moonlight. For the security which light gives, for the power of light drawing up sleeping seeds, bulbs, plants into springtime growth, for its warmth: for the fact that light is. Often I look out of my bedroom window and gaze at the rosy colours of dawn, the sun climbing clear of the horizon and whisper, “Look at that, Lord” and I catch the suggestion of a Divine Smile, as the Lord looks with me.
In the beginning God created heaven and earth. Now the earth was a formless void, there was darkness over the deep, with a divine wind sweeping over the waters.
And God said, ‘Let there be light, and there was light. God saw that light was good, and God divided light from darkness. God called light ‘day’ and darkness He called ‘night’ (Genesis 1. 1-5)
Without light the world could not be.
Without Jesus, the Word of God, the world could not be.
In the beginning was the Word: the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning, Through Him all things came into being, not one thing came into being except through Him. What has come into being in Him was life, life that was the light of men; and light shines in darkness, and darkness could not overpower it. (John 1. 1-5)
My birthday has come and gone; the house where I was born, is gone, the lanes and fields swallowed by housing estates, the sky larks, owls have moved out long ago: one thing remains the same yet more wonderful and becoming more wonderful, and sweeter, moment by moment, the Friendship of God. God, who created all things who stoops and asks for the love of a child.
What a wonderful world
I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself what a wonderful world
I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself what a wonderful world
The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shaking hands saying how do you do
They’re really saying I love you
I hear babies crying, I watch them grow
They’ll learn much more than I’ll never know
And I think to myself what a wonderful world
Yes I think to myself what a wonderful world
Songwriters: George Weiss / Robert Thiele
Listen to what our friend Jesus says,
“I am the light of the world;
Anyone who follows me will not be walking in the dark, but will have the light of life.”
(John 8.12)
There are so many things I will never know, but this I do know the friendship and light of life which God has given in our Lord Jesus Christ and the soft beat of the Dove’s wings as she broods over sparkling, water, clear as crystal.
The days lengthen and winter must give way to spring.
Fresh Whispers 