Beauty

 The Light shines through the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it." John 1:5

There's a beautiful scene in the "The Lord Of The Rings," the final installment of the Tolkien movie trilogy. Frodo and Sam are making their way through the dark night of the realm of Mordor, abode of the evil Sauron. All about them is the fruit of that evil, but as they walk, Sam looks up, and the heavy clouds part for a moment, and Sam sees the beauty of a full moon. Sam says to Frodo, "There's beauty here that no darkness can touch." Beauty that no darkness can touch. This is what those who live in and with Christ have; a beauty, a truth, a light, that all the darkness of this fallen world cannot touch or change. It is real, and for the believer, it is more real than the darkness. He is more real than the darkness. He has always been so. He will always be so.

Jesus Christ is the Light of the World. As John 1 says, He is Light that shines through the darkness, even the thickest of darkness. All the power of that darkness will fail to put that Light out. We have over 2000 years of proof of that truth. All the fury and hate of the devil and his hell have been unable to do away with the truth of Jesus Christ and His Light that comes with Him. To this day, the assaults continue. One only has to scan the TV listings to see all the documentaries and movies produced to "disprove" the reality of Jesus Christ and His claims. It has been so since His coming to men. Yet all attempts have failed, and will continue to fail, because the darkness will never be able to extinguish His Light.

That's why I love the scene in Mordor so much. The pall of Mordor, hell, is real in this fallen world, as is the darkness it has wrought. Pain, suffering, death, loss, sorrow. We are all subject to their effect to some degree on this side of eternity. The difference for the believer is that if we look for Him in the dark, we will behold His Light. We will see His beauty. We will discover, as did Sam, that the enemy's darkness can never touch His beauty and light, or diminish it.

Joni Eareckson Tada, a paraplegic since the age of 18, and one acquainted with much suffering and pain, said that in our journey into the darkness, which we will all experience to some degree, we will hear Him ask us in the dark of the night, "Do you believe and trust Me?" We will hear only His voice, but if we answer with "Yes," then we will "see" Him as well. We will behold His beauty. My beholding may differ from yours, but the beauty we see will be real, and it will be Him. As we journey through the Mordor of this world, we will experience the beauty no darkness can touch.

The pathway of the believer will always lead through Mordor. As we go, there will be much to terrify, that seeks to have us give up, and turn back. At that time, if we are attuned to His voice, we'll hear Him ask, "Do you believe Me? Will you trust Me?" How we answer will determine whether we see Him, His beauty that all the darkness of Mordor cannot touch. Or, will we just see Mordor and its darkness? What will you see? What are you seeing now?

Blessings,

Pastor O