"and into His marvelous light..."
1 Peter 2:9
How do you describe yourself these days?! What are some of the most striking attributes you attach to your view of yourself? I would venture to guess that you do not think of yourself as a sunbeam or a twinkling star or a sunrise sparkling on the world awakening from a cold, dark, moonless night.
Maybe you feel more like a cave that is dark and cold and good for nothing more than to bury the dead Lazarus inside it's lifeless walls. And yet, it was exactly such a tomb that Jesus called Lazarus out of, and by nothing more than His command, breathed the miracle of new life into a dead man's body.
Lazarus surely came out of the void of the darkness of death, and into "His marvelous light." And, because he was as surprised as everyone else to see himself walking around outside the cave, completely healed, he knew he owed the praise to the One who had "called him, out of the darkness and into His marvelous light..."
Lazarus became a living, breathing witness to the power of God to transform darkness into light, death into life. To call him a "peculiar people" was to put it lightly! But, I am quite certain, he didn't care what anybody called him. He had met the One who was the source of everything good and beautiful in his life. He had met Jesus.
I love the breathtaking description of how God sees us who have come into a relationship with Jesus Christ. He calls us nothing less than a "chosen generation" a "royal priesthood" a "holy nation"! If you are anything like me, you might find yourself looking around to see who it is He's talking about! "Who me?" is most likely my response!
I don't often feel chosen, holy or royal - do you? I wonder, given the realities of my life, how in the world this could be a fitting description of me? Surely, God is speaking to someone else in the room! But, this isn't a god who needs someone else to make it happen. He is the same One Who sliced through the darkness that covered the earth and gave birth to the glorious light of the sun, the moon and the stars. Surely, He can give birth to that light in me...
He can make us into a light brighter than the noon day sun. He can make us dance like a million candles flickering in the darkest, blackest, coldest, deadest place on earth, sometimes, our own heart. That is His promise to us. We have only to take hold of it and believe that what He says He will do, He will do.
May we be as willing as Lazarus to obey His voice to come out of the cold, dark, death of the tomb that has buried us, into His "marvelous light." May they say of us, when its all over, "Ah, yes, they were a 'pecular' people!" To the praise of Him who called us "out of darkness and into His marvelous light..."
