When you come out of the darkness into a strongly lighted room, nothing comes clearly into focus because the light itself fills your eyes.

The same thing was illustrated to us recently when my husband took a snapshot of sunrise breaking over a figurine standing on a rock in the garden. The sun had just come over the horizon and it broke in a star-burst over the figurine.

When we looked at the snapshot, the figurine was almost entirely obliterated and all you could really see was the sunlight. “What a beautiful burst of sunlight!” Was our enthusiastic comment.

The light formed a shield around the statuette, obscuring it and hiding it from sight.

Usually, if we want to hide something, we seek darkness for it but here was a principle that overturned our common sense. I had never really thought of light as being a protective shield but that is exactly what it was. The little figurine was concealed by an armour-plating of light.

It is no wonder that John the beloved said Christ was ‘the true light’ and that Paul said ‘Let Christ himself be the armour that you wear,’ John 1:9 and Romans 13:14.

Christ has ‘come into the world as light,’ John 12:46 and Paul said we must ‘put on the armour of light,’ Romans 13:12

When we wear Christ he is like a burst of early morning sunrise that is our armour-plated safety.

Elizabeth Price reprice@dragnet.com.au