Parents, A Light In The Darkness: *Words From COVID 19 quarantine

 Parents, a Light in the darkness. As a middle schooler, I was all over my neighborhood. Each day was a new adventure. Some were sports adventures: pick up basketball, football, stickball, some were finding new trails through the woods, sometimes riding a bicycle to a friend’s house, sometimes fishing... One adventure to the neighborhood cave was both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. This cave was near the old Civil War lead mine. One entrance was at the top of a bluff looking out over the river, but there was also a river level entrance to this cave at the bottom of the bluff. How cool is that! So, my friend and I actually thought far enough ahead to take a string with us, tie it to a tree and climb down into the cave, so we would know our way back out, if we got lost.. It was thrilling to climb through the cave to the opening at the river. We skipped some rocks, explored the large room, and began the accent back up through the cave. My friend shined his flashlight up the cave wall where we could see another opening at the top and said, “I wonder if there is another room on the other side of this wall.” So, of course we shinnied to the top of the wall and shined our lights down into the blackness. He said, “you go first.” So, down I went. He was right behind me. The room height started with enough room to walk bent over, then duck walk, then hands and knees, then belly crawl, then your back touched the top with your belly was pressed against the bottom. We hoped that it opened back up into another larger room, but all I could see in front of me was narrowing darkness and it felt like the weight of the earth was crushing me into the floor and it was hard to breath. My flashlight began getting dimmer (and, oh yeah, we forgot a backup flashlight.) At that moment, terror filled my whole being. I started to panic. My mind went to the stories about some boys who had been stuck in another cave in the neighborhood for 8 hours while cave rescue teams worked to extract them. My friend was right behind me, but I could not turn around to tell him of my sudden spelunking claustrophobia. Charged by fear, I began backing up quickly. He said, “stop, stop, what’s wrong.” I lost the capacity for words and just about kicked him all the way back to the wall to climb back out. I couldn’t get back out of the cave to daylight and fresh air fast enough. I’d like to say, I never went caving again, but I was always up for a new adventure... I just was a little more cautious in exploring new places.

Right now there seems to be so much spiritual darkness and as you look ahead it can look even darker. We cannot let our Light get dimmer or fear take over. We gotta make sure we have more connection with Jesus, the Light of the World. He is the only hope for a darkening world. When the pressures seem overwhelming, we have to stay calm and keep breathing and experience His peace. Not far from us is a river of life, fresh air and bright sunshine, it’s just hard to see it right now. When the Apostle John was encouraging the early church by writing a letter to them about the Good News of Jesus Christ, he tells them about the qualities of the Light, (i.e. the power of Jesus). No matter how dark it gets, the Light always wins. He says to God’s people about Jesus, “In him was life, and that life was the light of men. That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it.” John 1:1-5 (CSBBible) With pandemics, pandemonium, political vitriol and pessimism everywhere, we have peace, hope, life, and Light in Jesus. It’s easy to panic under the pressures, be overcome by fear and lose our capacity to speak and encourage other people. However, We were re-born for times like these, to bring the Light and Love and Life to those around us, regardless of how dark it seems.

Hang in there people. God is with us. I’m praying for us all.