Sister Virginia U. Jensen
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When he was just 10 years old, Joshua Dennis spent five days trapped in a pitch-black mine. When rescuers found him he was disoriented, cold and exhausted, but he wasn't afraid. He said someone was protecting him. He knew he would be found.
Joshua's parents taught him he was born with the light of Christ within him. And he had drawn upon that light to sustain and comfort him.
How fitting that our Savior's birth in Bethlehem was accompanied by miraculous displays of light in the Western Hemisphere. This celebration of light stood in stark contrast to his crucifixion when "there was thick darkness upon all the face of the land."
There are all kinds of darkness in this world. Darkness that comes from sin, from discouragement, disappointment and despair. Darkness that comes from loneliness and inadequacy. But just as the light that burned in Joshua Dennis's heart was stronger than the darkness, the light of Jesus Christ is stronger than any kind of darkness we face in life. The Savior's light increases in our lives as we strive to be like Him. Throughout the scriptures, and indeed, in the writings of thoughtful Christians, we find examples of how Christ's light can sustain us.
John Henry Newman, a young priest traveling in Italy in 1833, encountered emotional and physical darkness when illness detained him there for several weeks. He finally found passage on a small boat. Not long after the boat set sail, fog set it. Trapped for a week in the damp, gray darkness, Newman pleaded for his Savior's help as he penned the words we now know as the hymn, "Lead, Kindly Light."
"I know from my own experience, just as surely as Josh (Dennis) knows from his, of the reality of that marvelous being of light —— our Savior. May we embrace His light and live so that it will illuminate our path and lead us to our heavenly home."
