To the faithful you show yourself faithful,
to the blameless you show yourself blameless,
to the pure you show yourself pure,
but to the devious you show yourself shrewd.
You save the humble
but bring low those whose eyes are haughty.
You, Lord, keep my lamp burning;
my God turns my darkness into light.
With your help I can advance against a troop;
with my God I can scale a wall. Psalm 18:25-29

For centuries God has turned darkness into light. In the Old Testament, He shone that light into the darkness to see what was actually there. People ran from it and did what they could to cover over it. In the New Testament, Jesus came as that light. People ran from Him, tried to murder him, and did everything they could to extinguish the light.

It’s no accident that David uses that metaphor here. He knew deep darkness, and he knew great light. We, like David, face both at various times in our lives. We tend to forget “the light” times when we’re in the midst of darkness, and often “the light” times make us forget the dark times. But the fact that we continue to return to the light means that God is still working in our lives.

The Inextinguishable Light of Jesus is much like a pilot light in a stove, always burning, always ready to provide more light and radiance (and I fully realize that this metaphor falls short). He will not force that brightness on us but instead waits for us to call on Him.