Lights In The Darkness

 

Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

Matthew 5:14

Children chattered and played as they walked with their parents carrying baskets of food. Lamps glimmered as dusk settled in. Tonight was the last night to hear and visit with Paul before he sailed to Assos. The people agreed to meet at the large house, three stories high, in the middle of town. Neighbors watched as the little troop grew larger the closer they came to the house. 

The ladies in the house welcomed the guests, taking the baskets and spreading the food along tables for

everyone to share. With a little food, a little fellowship, a little preaching, and the buzz of the house no one noticed how late the hour had become. 

Neighbors noticed lamps twinkling in a third-story room. “What’s going on there?” Their own lamps were going out one by one as they laid down for the night. 

Eutychus, a young man, sat propped up in a window to catch the night breeze and make room for the older folks to sit. As Paul preached toward midnight, Eutychus’ eyes began to droop and his head to nod. Several times, he’d caught himself from falling onto the old man seated in front of him. He’d rearranged himself hoping to wake up. He wanted to hear and he didn’t want to begin to snore. Suddenly his arms flailed and he toppled out the window onto the street below. 

People screamed. Lights poured into the streets. A man checked Eutychus for life. "He's dead!" The commotion awakened the neighbors who stood in their doorways shivering in the night air.  Paul pushed his way through the crowd, then gathered the young man in his arms. “His life is in him,” he declared as Eutychus’ eyes fluttered open. 

“Hallelujah! Praise God! Thank you, Jesus!” came exclamations from the crowd as they lifted their hands and faces heavenward. 

"Thank you, Jesus? Who is this Jesus?" the neighbors whispered along the street. They watched as the people filed back into the house, talking and praising.

Inside people prayed, ate, listened, and asked questions until dawn when the town began to stir again.  As the people dispersed, some helped Eutychus home. 

Neighbors watched and eyed the window where last night he had fallen to his death.

Lamps through the night, a dead man raised alive, people praising Jesus. “We’ve never seen anything like this before.”

To think, it seemed to have started with lights shining in the darkness.

Heavenly Father, may our lights shine in the darkness so that others may see how You have raised us from death to a new life in Christ. For it is in the name of Christ Jesus we pray. Amen