A Light For This Year – Sunday, January 06, 1980
The turn of a decade, perhaps even more than the turn of a year, is a time for reflection, a summing up of where we’ve been, where the last ten years have taken us. Many observers have called it an age of turbulence and disappointment, a time when optimism was dashed by the problems and challenges of a changing world. Some have called it a time of retreat from old values and old assumptions about the way things are or ought to be. And many look to this new decade with all the unease of a child who wakes up in a strange house in a dark room.
We cannot know what lies ahead, but we do know some things about darkness and uncertainty. The Lord often refers to Himself as a Light. “Behold I am the light which shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not,” He says.1 And this continual reference seems to be more than merely an interesting figure of speech. He is, in fact, the author and source of all light in the universe.
Darkness is absolutely powerless against light. In the darkest cave, light a single candle and the darkness must utterly flee. A single gaslight in homes of a century ago would send shadows scurrying to the corners of a room. And we know that it is the sun which obliviates the cold and dark of night. Night has no power against it.
Louis Haskins wrote, “I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, give me light that I may tread safely into the unknown. And he replied, go out into the darkness and put thine hand into the hand of God. That shall be to thee better than a light and safer than a known way.”2
So, it can be for us. As Richard Evans once said, “God is greater than your greatest need.”3 No matter what our distress or fear, no matter what shadows worry us as we contemplate tomorrow, God, our personal protector, is greater than them all.
Have faith, then, in the future. He will light the way to those who serve Him and ultimately and inevitably He will triumph over any personal darkness. When we contemplate tomorrow, if our hearts and faith do not fail us, there is reason to rejoice.
1 Doctrine and Covenants. 6:21
2 Evans, Richard L., Quote Book, Publishers Press, p 132.
3 IBID. p. 139.
“The Spoken Word” heard over KSL and CBS from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Utah, January 6, 1980 11:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon, Eastern Time Copyright 1980 Bonneville Productions
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January 06, 1980
Broadcast Number 2,629