Lamps

My husband is Lighting Certified. He spends his work days designing lighting plans, creating images of how light will change a space. He likes to say that the purpose of lighting is to provide light - to illuminate the space for the work that needs to be done.

I think when we think of lighting, we expect the light to make it possible to see - not just right in front of us, but far from us. Lighting provides us with confidence that we know where we are going.

Psalm 119:105 says, "Your word is lamp to my feet and a light to my path." 

What image does that verse create in your mind? I think of a well-lighted path, with the way for us to go visible for a long distance. I apply my expectation of lighting to it.  During Advent, I read Voices of Advent by Matthew L. Skinner. He says, "I used to work with an Old Testament scholar who once preached a memorable sermon on psalm 119:1-5. He explained that lamps in the ancient world were little wicks hanging out of shallow bowls of oil, with each one producing a tiny, flickering flame.  If God or Scripture lights our path like that...then we shouldn't expect to perceive what's ahead of us in the dead of night by more than a few inches. The psalm says we go one step at a time."

God is with us, and we go one step at a time.

Amy Grants song, Thy Word is a Lamp Unto my Feet offers new wisdom to  me in the "light" (haha) of this passage from Skinner.

When I feel afraid, 

think I've lost my way, 

Still You're there right beside me. 

And nothing will I fear 

as long as You are near; 

Please be near me to the end.