I HAVE been astonished at the change in people since the sun came out over the weekend. Everyone seems uplifted and keen to talk about how nice it is to “see the sun again”.

It reminded me of a time I went caving and potholing (a hobby I thoroughly enjoyed). We made the mistake of ignoring the big black clouds when we went into the cave and unsurprisingly it was not long before it started to rain “up top” and began to flood inside.

We began to get much colder and wetter than we had prepared for and I for one began to get rather scared. Due to the increasing cold and the rather full waterfalls we were abseiling down, we all began to get hypothermic and even the group leader became uncertain of where we were.

Things looked bleak. It was then, looking up, we saw high above us another caver's light and, shouting over the roar of the water, we established that we were where we should have been and the way out was ahead.

An hour (and much water) later, I climbed out of the cave mouth into daylight. My fears and worries had been dispelled by two lights, that of the caver high above us and that of the daylight upon leaving the cave. How reassuring that first small light was, and how wonderful to climb into the greater light of day.

Jesus was heralded as being the light of mankind, and it has been my experience that when far from Him, still his light has reassuringly shown me the way to go, but better still, when close to Him, I cannot help but be uplifted and smile.

Enjoy the sunshine, but better still enjoy the light of God.

Final thought:

In him [Jesus] was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1: 4, 5

By Barnabas