THE BLINDING LIGHT OF FORGIVENESS!

With no apology, I share another story from Richard and Renee Stearn’s book, HE WALKS AMONG US [pp.193-195]

BLINDING LIGHT

The darker our darkness, the more brilliant is the Good News of our forgiveness in Christ!

“The people living in darkness have seen a great light;

on those living in the land of the shadow of death

a light has dawned.”

From that time on Jesus began to preach,

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Matthew 4:16-17

When Renee and I were in the Netherlands, we had the opportunity to visit a labyrinth of caves near the city of Maastricht.  During World War II people had sought refuge there.  At one point in the tour, our guide turned off all the lights so we could experience total darkness.  It was somewhat terrifying and disorienting to be in a place completely devoid of light.  Later, when we emerged, the sunshine seemed blinding by comparison.

Several years ago Northern Uganda might have qualified as the darkest place on earth from a spiritual perspective.  The LRA was terrorizing local civilians and kidnapping children to turn them into rebel fighters.  Many boys and girls, at the point of a gun, were forced to brutally kill family members and friends.

In the midst of this dark place, the World Vision rehabilitation center shone a bright light by taking in the broken child soldiers and child brides who had managed to escape Kony’s army.  We offered a safe place of healing, restoration and reclamation to the light for those who had experienced years of living in darkness.

One day Renee and I had the privilege of witnessing the arrival of two teenage boys who had been rescued from the LRA.  The big gates swung open, and the vehicle drove into the compound.  Michael and Joseph weren’t prepared for what was about to happen to them.  Both had spent years with Kony and the LRA, and they had undoubtedly been forced to kill and maim hundreds of their own countrymen.  Michael’s left arm was withered from a gunshot wound sustained before he was fully grown.  And both boys had been poisoned with lies about what would be done to them at the rehabilitation center.  Fear was in their lifeless eyes as they entered the camp.  They weren’t at all prepared for the brilliant light of forgiveness.

Instead of the torture and punishment they had expected, fifty other boys and girls surrounded their car, dancing, clapping, and singing hymns of praise and songs of welcome to these two broken boys.  As the two stumbled from the vehicle, smiles, handshakes, and high fives were offered from other damaged children who also knew something about the darkness from which Michael and Joseph had emerged.  A spark of life returned to the boys’ eyes.  The corners of their eyes began to turn up.  They were home.  The singing crowd spilled directly into the chapel for a spontaneous worship service to welcome them back.  And that’s when I saw it.  I could see the good news – the glorious life-changing gospel and the unthinkable possibility of forgiveness – washing over Michael and Joseph like a new dawn.  They had realized that they could be made clean again just as Jesus had promised:

“He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”   [Jesus reading from the prophets in Luke 4:18-19]

This blinding truth had pierced their darkness just as it had once pierced mine.   - Rich