Afraid of the Dark...

I was doing my “Mommy duties” (can’t remember exactly which one) when I tuned into what the kids were watching on PBS.  It was a show that was all about not being scared of the dark.  They had all the kids go around the classroom and observe what they saw.  The backpacks were on the shelf.  The fish was in his bowl.  The board was there, and the chalk.  All the usual things were in their usual places.  She then turned off the light and asked them what was now in the classroom.  The kids, of course, walked around and felt the backpacks, fish bowl, board, chalk…and you get the point.  Everything was the same.  Lights on or off…exactly the same.  So, there isn’t really anything to be afraid of, right?

It struck me immediately after hearing them talk about it…us adults are afraid of the “dark” too.  I know that this is something I am consistently telling myself to overcome.  My dark is the future…the unknown…what I am waiting for…the offer…the answer…the hope.  It is SO VERY EASY to get anxious about what we don’t know.  The “what if” can really overcome us.  We often think of the worst case scenario…though that isn’t often what really happens anyway. 

Why are we worried?  Don’t we have a God who lives in the light?  We don’t need the light to see what is happening…if we trust that God sees it and that He will take care of us.   Our awesome (I use that word intentionally AWEsome), all-knowing, powerful, thinks-of-it-all God…loves us more than we are able to comprehend.  And He tells us in His word that He will never forsake us.  Jeremiah 29:11 tells us “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”  HE KNOWS.  He is bigger than darkness.  He overcomes the future, the present, even the past. 

So…if we can teach our children that things are the same whether we can see them on not…that we need not fear because it is OK…then shouldn’t we do the same?  Because it is truth.  We need not fear.