Light Versus Darkness

From The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

"...our Bible was the center of an ever-widening circle of help and hope. Like waifs clustered around a blazing fire, we gathered about it, holding out our hearts to its warmth and light. The blacker the night around us grew, the brighter and truer and more beautiful burned the word of God... Life in Ravensbruck took place on two separate levels, mutually impossible. One, the observable, external life, grew every day more horrible. The other, the life we lived with God, grew daily better, truth upon truth, glory upon glory. Sometimes I would slip the Bible from its little sac with hands that shook, so mysterious had it become to me. It was new; it had just been written. I marveled sometimes that the ink was dry. I had believed the Bible always, but reading it now had nothing to do with belief. It was simply a description of the way things were -- of hell and heaven, of how men act and how God acts. I had read a thousand times the story of Jesus' arrest -- how soldiers had slapped Him, laughed at Him, flogged Him. Now such happenings had faces and voices... Fridays --the recurrent humiliation of medical inspection...But it was one of these mornings while we were waiting, shivering, in the corridor, that yet another page in the Bible leapt into life for me...I leaned toward Betsie, ahead of me in line. Her shoulder blades stood out sharp against her blue-mottled skin. 'Betsie, they took His clothes too." Ahead of me I heard a little gasp, "Oh, Corrie. And I never thanked Him. . ."

I honestly cannot put into words the impact this book is making on my heart. I only pray it will translate from my heart into my actions. Could it be the only way to focus solely on The Light is to be completely surrounded by darkness? Yet, anything that is not Truth is darkness. Perhaps it is only when the darkness displaces our comfort we are able to focus on The Light. Is, then, our inability to have total focus due to the fact we become comfortable with a certain amount of darkness? Could this explain a lack of passion even among committed Believers? Oh, that all darkness would displace my comfort and cause me to see only The Light, holding Him up for all to see.