[Illustration \u2013 pennies on the river bottom. Swimming and
searching for coins\u2026and the sunlight would illuminate them in the
mud]

As we examine Isaiah 60 this evening and Article 21 of the
Contemporary Testimony \u2013 we think about the theme of light and
in order to do so we also have to also\u2026

No matter how you posit the beginning of the universe the reality of darkness is there. If you believe the earth to be billions of years old starting at a single point and launching forward from the Big Bang then you recognize that there is no light present.

There is nothing to generate it \u2013 nothing to reflect it \u2013 no suns, no
stars, no planets\u2026just empty space save for a single point where
everything that exists was compressed into a tiny ball before being
released by God in His creating providence.

If you favour a young universe, a completely literal reading of the
Genesis account and a history of time that extends back in the
thousands of years rather than billions. You find that very same
darkness. The absence of light before everything was spoken into
being. The world was formless and void and darkness covered it.

No matter your particular stance on how everything happened
following God\u2019s creation of the universe \u2013 there is common ground
on what was happening right before it.

As an atheist in my teenage years I would wrestle with this void \u2013
trying to look into it \u2013 to contemplate the mystery of the darkness \u2013
whether anything escaped from the shadow. I would stay awake at
night for fear that closing my eyes would bring that darkness too
close to escape\u2026

For me \u2013 lingering on this verse is uncomfortable \u2013 staying with
the darkness at the beginning of everything touches on old fears
and memories \u2013 and I\u2019m always glad that the verse is brief\u2026
because from that first moment of non-existence comes the glory
of creation.

\u201cLet there be Light\u201d God said \u2013 and there was \u2013 and it was Good.
That\u2019s the beauty of the creation story \u2013 that within this
inescapable darkness \u2013 this reality of nonexistence \u2013 God brings
everything into existence beginning with light.

And it was good for a time \u2013 but then the story of sin takes place and what we see is that darkness starting to creep back in to the universe.

The story of sin \u2013 is one that can be told just like that \u2013 the story of
darkness \u2013 of chaos \u2013 of death and existence apart from the light
and life of God being brought back into the world.

That\u2019s why we posit good and evil in these ways \u2013 as light and
darkness \u2013 because the realities they invoke go right back to the
beginning\u2026and continue to the story of grace\u2026where we find as
we reflect on the darkness \u2013 that by the light of God through Jesus
Christ\u2026

Now last week when the cadets were sitting up here we talked
briefly about this \u2013 remember flashlights and mirrors \u2013 and we
talked about how it is that we see things. It\u2019s interesting the way
that we use our language to describe what\u2019s going on when we
see\u2026

We make it seem active \u2013 like it\u2019s something that we cause \u2013 but
really it\u2019s something of a passive sense. It\u2019s not like touch where
we reach out and feel\u2026seeing is about waiting for light to come to
us\u2026

Our eyes are light catchers \u2013 and what we see is light that has
bounced off of the things \u2013 reflected off them and made their way
into our eyes\u2026people too \u2013 that\u2019s how we see each other and
because we\u2019re able to see people constantly reflecting light we
assume that they\u2019re pretty shiny\u2026

But we\u2019re not really \u2013 there\u2019s this place where you can go into a
room that completely surrounds you with mirrors but has no light
in it. Even the door is a mirror and the floor is a mirror.

Close the door and it\u2019s dark. Light a candle and it\u2019s bright because
all the light is reflected back to you. It\u2019s interesting when you flash
a camera in there. You would think that with all the reflection
going on that the flash would last a long time\u2026but it doesn\u2019t really
\u2013 because what happens is all that light from the flash \u2013 it goes out
\u2013 it bounces back \u2013 it reflects off and then bounces back \u2013 it lasts a3