Contemplative Bible Reading

John 3:19-21 (New Living Translation)

“And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. ²⁰ All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. ²¹ But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”

Sometimes I forget everything in the third chapter of John’s gospel except 3:16. Here is something I find important – the simple discussion of light and dark. Jesus is speaking in these verses. He speaks of simple things:

God’s light came into the world

This pulls me back to the creation (hi)story in Genesis 1:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Suppose we only had tiny fragments of the Bible. If we just had these two little pieces from John 3 and Genesis 1, we would probably have more than we needed.

There was darkness in the world, and God brought light. The End.