The Power of Light Amidst Darkness

My school district declared today a snow day (as yet, nary a flake has fallen). This unexpected but very welcome news arrived just before 6 AM as I was about to jump into the shower on our first day back after the holiday break.

What a treat!

Realizing I was wide awake yet didn’t have anywhere to go, I decided to forgo the shower and take a walk before the snow began. Armed with a flashlight and resolve, I donned several layers of heavy clothing and crept out into the darkness.

My first stop was to a mailbox, where I inserted a birthday card for a brother in Christ. I next strolled among a small stretch of shops, all shuttered and dark. I had decided to confine my rambling to well-lit areas, since day had yet to dawn.

Let me now mention that my faithful prayer partner and I were conversing by phone this whole time. Tina unfailingly rouses early to pray with me and put on spiritual armor, as it were, thereby equipping both of us for the day ahead.

Suddenly, my voice broke into Tina’s prayer.

“Tina!” I interjected. “There are some gorgeous houses along this route that I never noticed before! I mean, I’ve noticed them; I’ve walked this way hundreds of times. But never in darkness. This one has a glorious Tiffany lamp glowing through bay windows. The beauty must never have hit me before because I’ve only ever seen it in the daytime. It’s so different to see the whole thing in the dark.”

A bit further along, my eyes lit on the creche scene pictured below. Again, my walks have taken me by the church which hosted this display on many occasions; however, the blanket of pre-dawn silhouetted the scene in such a way that the humble majesty of it all really touched me. 

        “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” – John 1:5

I enjoyed a similarly illuminating experience this past New Year’s Eve. My sister, Jane, Tina and I viewed an exceptional movie, Amazing Grace, which chronicled the life of William Wilberforce. This English statesman, spurred on by his pastor, former slave trader John Newton, toiled for years in the House of Parliament to eliminate the slave trade in Great Britain. I watched the film again last night, wanting to more firmly grasp Wilberforce’s dream, fueled by the blood-stained hands of his spiritual advisor. Wilberforce lived to see the darkness of slavery extinguished by the ineffable light of emancipation.

Why, on the eve before returning to the doldrums of post-holiday life, did I choose to spend two precious hours re-watching a picture I had just seen a few days ago?

My reasons were selfish and unselfish, all at the same time.

You see, readers, I have a dream of my own that no darkness can extinguish.

It’s no secret; I’ve been prattling on about it for years now in this forum. My pro-life novel, Belabored, remains on my hard drive and in my heart. Oh, I’ve posted it piecemeal on my blog and social media, but those venues are limited to my circle of friends. I long for greater circulation.

Though many will disagree on this, I can’t help but see gruesome parallels between slavery and abortion. Both reduce human life to dollars and cents, cashing in on the most priceless commodity society has – humanity. I wrote about this five years ago, decrying the disgraceful amount of resources our country has committed to funding a bloodbath of major proportions in the name of “privacy” and personal freedom. Sadly, the numbers have only gone up since then, with Planned Parenthood admitting to snuffing out the lives of 354,871 potential Americans in fiscal year 2019-2020, according to page 35 of its latest annual report. In PP’s 2014-2015 report (the one I cited in my 2017 article, to which I’m comparing current statistics), the organization confessed to 323,999 abortions (page 30). This equates to an increase of nearly ten per cent. Now consider that undercover journalists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt remain heavily encumbered legally and financially subsequent to their exposure of Planned Parenthood’s flourishing baby body part selling business; juxtapose that travesty of justice with the grisly fetal experimentation, funded by the NIH and therefore taxpayers, being conducted at a notable university. With lawmakers lurching towards legalizing abortion up until the point of birth, it becomes clear the abortion business is still booming in the United States.

Thankfully, the Supreme Court has taken up a case which has the potential to overturn Roe v. Wade as we know it. Also, 2021 saw the passage of much legislation limiting abortion. These developments give rise to hope that the heyday of abortion apologists may be coming to an end.

Why tread over all this blood-soaked ground? For the same reason Wilberforce kept pounding away at the chief societal problem of his day, despite repeated failures and much criticism.

In the end, his dream was realized.

Inspired by Newton and Wilberforce, and buoyed by the metaphor of light piercing darkness, this author is recommitting to her cause. I don’t yet know how. Daunting obstacles stand between me and publication, but what are roadblocks to a God who triumphed over sin by raising His sinless Son from the grave? 

Along those lines, I've chosen to give Newton, reformed slaver and unlikeliest of holy men, the last word: “Although my memory's fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.”