The storm drain on the perimeter of our corner lot wasn’t up to code — its opening was large enough for a small child or animal to fall through — so it was repaired last week. The first crew arrived two weeks ago to lift the cement cover and set it aside on the lawn. I’m sure the grass underneath perished quickly — a neighbor told me theirs turned yellow in mere hours from a forgotten tarp. After two weeks denied of light, our little rectangle of grass is emphatically lifeless.

Grass needs light.

We need light.

We may not require literal sunlight, as plants do, but we do require an intangible thing still aptly called light:  a reason to live; hope for a future; certainty that there is goodness on this planet, love on this planet; assurance that some of that love is meant for us, that we are loved.

And we are, always. If no human on Earth deems us worthy of love, still, God loves us. And his love is enough. It is life giving, life sustaining, life altering.

He is life. He is love. He is light.

1 John 1:5  This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.

John 1:4  In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.

 John 8:12  Once again, Jesus spoke to the people and said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.”

John 9:5  While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

John 11:25  Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies.

John 12:46  I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in Me should remain in darkness.

John 14:6  Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.