Once upon a time, a cowboy rode in on a white horse, we all knew he was the good guy and the one who rode in on the dark horse was the bad guy. Through the review mirror, life seemed so simple. So easy. Good was good. Bad was bad. Light was hope. Dark was despair.

We rejoice and sing in the light of day. We cower in fear from the shadows of the night. But, what if we’re wrong? What if the world is exactly the opposite of what we believe it to be? What if hope isn’t living in the warmth and safety we feel from the sun but instead is waiting longing for us in the dark? Living in the last place we actively go to look for it.

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ² Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

God existed in the beginning. When the heavens and the earth were formless and empty. There was nothing but dark. A great expanse of void. A black hole. And yet… in that darkness… lived hope.

My first experience in total darkness was when my husband and I went to Smokehole Caverns down by Seneca Rocks. When you first walk into a cavern, the light from the outside world can penetrate in. For a surprising distance as you travel inward, light exists even though your eyes might not immediately think so. But, there comes a point where the light can no longer reflect it’s way inward. After a few of twists and turns, all light, is gone. The place becomes what is called total darkness. Total darkness, abbreviated as TD means that if you turn off your flashlight or blow out your candle, your eyes will never adjust, you will never be able to see, no shadow, no shapes, a void.

Generally, when we think it’s dark, if we give our eyes some time, we will be able to see again, at least to some extent. Our pupils will widen, our eyes will open as far as they can and enough light will exist that we can see shadows and make out large objects. But, in total darkness, this does not happen. The only places you can experience this here on earth is in deep winding caverns carved through stone or in the depths of the ocean where there is so much pressure light the rays of light cannot penetrate the water.

Yet in these spaces of total darkness, life exists… without light. Things that live here do not see as we see. They do not behave as we behave. But darkness, like this, total darkness is where our God resides. Before there was sun or stars in the sky. When there was nothing creating illumination. Our God lived.  Hope in the darkness. And that is where our God chose to create this incredible planet we now live on. Out of the void. God did not create light until the fourth day. Hope lived in the darkness.

Mark reminds us that “in those days, following that distress, “‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; ²⁵ the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’” In this time of darkness is when we will see the Son of Man and the angels will come to earth. In this time of darkness, we will see hope. In the dark of night, a child will be born. In the dark of night, a star will shine to light the path of the wise who will travel from afar to see their king. In the dark… we find hope.

The season of Advent is filled with reminders of this dark hope. Shadows you see are not made from the darkness but caused by light. Where there is no light, there will be no shadows. Only dark. And yet, hope is there. Waiting, longing, calling out.

During the scariest times of our lives, the times we view as darkness, that is often where we make our first true encounter with hope because that is where our God lives. Before creating the earth, God lived in the darkness of the void. A place where He was needed. A place where God still resides.

It’s easy for us to get lost in the darkness. We become reliant solely upon ourselves. We ignore outside advice, turn down outside assistance, refuse to allow anyone else to help carry our yoke. But. when we think we have wandered as far away from God as we could possibly get, that is where He lies in wait for us. Hope in the dark.

Light cannot hide in the darkness but hope can. Hope is what finds us in the darkness and brings us into the much less scary light where we can fend for ourselves and rely upon our own senses. But the more we rely upon ourselves, the less we rely upon God.

I like to think that when God created the world out of darkness, he did so because of the hope he found there. Hope for mankind. Hope for His creation. Hope that we would be able to fulfill our destinies, find our purposes, holding strong and trusting in the one who pushed us out of the darkness. Trusting in that hope to get us out of the dark. When we are in the dark, we are not lost, we are not alone, hope is always with us. God is always with us.

We live in God’s house. We are his servants. We have each been given an assigned task. We have been told to keep watch. Conceived in the darkness of our mother’s wombs. Brought into a world filled with despair and pain, a world of a different kind of darkness, will come our hope, and our salvation. We need not fear this time of darkness where our destination may be like a single candle flame because the dark hope that lives here is a constant reminder that God lives in this darkness too, came from this very darkness, to create us a world that would one day be filled with the light of his son, our Savior, Jesus Christ.

May, the Lord bless you and keep you;
May the Lord make his face to shine upon you And be gracious to you; May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you And give you peace.