One of my earliest movie memories is Your Cheatin’ Heart about Hank Williams. Mom and Dad watched it one night when we lived in Mount Pleasant, Texas. Not one to sit still for an adult movie at age six, I ran around the house with my six-shooter and cowboy hat while my parents tried to listen to the television.

The movie ends with an announcement that Williams died on the way to the concert. The crowd then sang Williams’ song, I Saw the Light. You can see the lyrics and hear a clip from the song here: [https://bit.ly/3AfrrLw].

Mom’s tears caught my attention. I asked, “Did you know him?” She answered, “I knew who he was. I did not know him personally.” 

John writes, “In him was life, and that life was the light of men. That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it,” (1:4, 5). John goes on to begin telling about John the Baptizer who “came as a witness to testify about the light,” (verse 6). 

The Baptizer “was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. The true light that gives light to everyone, was coming into the world,” (verse 8). 

Hank’s song is a good reminder that we do not have to wander in the dark. There is light that opens our eyes to see all things as they truly are. What John began telling in the overture to his Gospel (1:1-18), he continues here in 8:12 in another of the seven I AM statements of Jesus.

John gives us lenses to see Jesus for who he is through seven signs and seven I AM statements. Once we see Jesus for who he is, we see all things differently. We see everything else with clarity and focus. We cannot see things as they are, or as they could be, until we see Jesus for who he is.

You and I can see the light. In the light of Jesus, we can see the hope and the future he makes possible for us and for our world. 

See the Light. Walk in the Light. Carry the Light within you. 

Know the Light. Know the light personally.

Michael Connelly’s Bosch novels include a constant refrain regarding what the police detective Harry Bosch calls “lost light.” He first noticed it in the tunnels in Vietnam. In those darkest of dark places, light always found a way in. Many years later, sitting chained in a dark barn awaiting the return of the men who would take his life, light found its way in. 

In a movie about an alcoholic singer, there is a song about seeing the light, the Light of the World. 

Looking through amber, surrounded by darkness, or lost without hope, there is light enough for you. There is the Light of the World. There is Jesus.

—————————————————————————

I will walk in the Light.

—————————————————————————