John 1:5  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

What is it for you? A missed opportunity? A flunked exam? Did your marriage go south? Did your husband die? Did your business go under? Did you make a bad decision? What is your dark cloud that refuses to go away?

All of us are acquainted with life's dark clouds. Loneliness. Depression. Shame. Guilt. Emptiness. Anger. Cancer. Death. Sometimes things become dark - very dark. Then, just when we aren't expecting him, the Prince of Darkness, Satan, shows up, pointing his accusing finger at us - mocking our feeble discipleship, our failed relationships, and our fatal attractions.

When we're in the dark, we have the light! "The light shines in the darkness." There is gold in the verb shines. It's a present-tense verb. John doesn't write "the light shone" or "the light will shine." No. John writes, "The light shines in the darkness." The light of God's love shines in our darkness, in our deep darkness, in the darkest hours of our life.

"The darkness has not overcome it." With these words, John prepares us for Good Friday. Talk about a dark day! There were the people: Judas. Annas. Caiaphas. Pilate. Barabbas. Herod. There was so much torture. Nails. Blood. Sweat. Tears. Darkness. Oh, my, the darkness! Three hours of darkness! Then death. But three days later, the light shines (present tense, shines!).  The darkness will never overcome Jesus. The darkness will never overcome us!
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