Silver Lining

Tonight is a full moon. On Sunday evening, as I waited outside the chapel doors to greet worshippers around 5.40pm, the lengthening evening still allowed a decent view of the nearly full moon. Although the picture taken on my cheap phone hardly does justice, I took another as I cycled home about 8.40pm. Its brightness illuminated the sheep in the fields even when it was hidden behind clouds. It wasn’t that the moon was much brighter, but that the earth had become much darker.

God’s word, the Bible, has always shone brightly. Our world, however, is getting darker: false religion militates on our own shores, evil ideologies permeate governments and the general populace is characterised by ignorance and spiritual lethargy. This effect, ironically, is to make the scriptures appear to shine the brighter, so great is the contrast between their message and the world’s lies. In 1950, when Britain was largely living off a vast Christian inheritance, the biblical message may have seemed less radical in its illuminating distinction, unlike today. Every cloud has a silver lining…

For thou, Lord, lightenest my lantern; my God, lighten thou my darknesses. Psalm 18:28, Wycliffe.

A  D