Is dangerous business. Just ask your big toe. Even in a familiar environment, there can be uncomfortable surprises: There’s a dog bone in the middle of the floor. The coffee table is closer than you remember. A spider is camped out on the light switch.
If you’ve already navigated that space enough in the light, you can manage. An unfamiliar environment, however, is a whole different story. The smartest thing to do is to just not move at all. Stay still. Stay put. Wait til dawn.
Life is an unfamiliar environment. While your life might be relatively comfortable and familiar to you (after all, it’s the only life you’ve ever lived), it’s still not as brightly lit as you might like to think.
You’ve lived a lot of life, but you’ve never lived today. The minutes and hours and days in front of you are—to put it in terms of this metaphor—hidden in darkness. You can’t see life until it’s right in front of your face, until you’re banging your toe against it, or until it’s cracking against your shin.
It is into this reality that Jesus says, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” The one who says “Yes” to this invitation may not see everything clearly all of the time, but there will be considerably less bumping around.
