Thick Darkness

GOD said to Moses: "Stretch your hand to the skies. Let darkness descend on the land of Egypt--a darkness so dark you can touch it." Moses stretched out his hand to the skies. Thick darkness descended on the land of Egypt for three days. Nobody could see anybody. For three days no one could so much as move. -- Exodus 10:21-2a, The Message Has God ever sent a darkness into your life? He certainly sent darkness into the life of the King of Egypt. It wasn't the twilight darkness that fills romantic songs with mystery and warmth. It wasn't a streetlight darkness that shrouds our cities in a dim illumination over the evening hours. It wasn't the kind of darkness even a child would endure in the closet just to win a game of hide and seek. There is relief upon being found. It was a darkness so thick you could feel it. If you've ever been someplace so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, you still haven't felt this darkness. A darkness that blinded the eyes and weighed as heavy as elaborate gold jewelry upon the Egyptians. It was so dark that no one could see anyone. Like a lonely blind man without his cane, they were afraid to take a step into the unknown. Familiar streets suddenly became foreign countries into which they feared to walk one step. Except for the Israelites: they had light where they were living. -- Exodus 10:23 I can just see a curtain of darkness, running along the border of Goshen. What would it have been like to be in the dark ... maybe three feet from the border but you can't see it. Or on the other side, observing the darkness but thankful to be in the light. Do you think any of the Israelites were tempted to reach into the darkness and pull out a fellow human? I'm not sure we can know just how dreadful the darkness was ... but I do not think we are a stranger to it. What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by. The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn't put it out." -- John 1:4-5 At noon the sky became extremely dark. The darkness lasted three hours. At three o'clock, Jesus groaned out of the depths, crying loudly, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" --- Mark 15:33-34 It started when God said, "Light up the darkness!" and our lives filled up with light as we saw and understood God in the face of Christ, all bright and beautiful. -- 2 Corinthians 4:6 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. -- Colossians 1:13-14 (NIV) It's the person who loves brother and sister who dwells in God's light and doesn't block the light from others. But whoever hates is still in the dark, stumbles around in the dark, doesn't know which end is up, blinded by the darkness.--1 John 2:10-11 The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was plunged into darkness. Men gnawed their tongues in agony and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done. -- Revelation 16:10-11 (NIV) What are your thoughts about darkness?