There is a Time for Darkness

I form the light,

and create darkness,

I make peace.

and I create evil.

I, the Lord, do all these things.

(Isaiah, 45:7)

Perhaps you have heard of the Yellowstone Park Experiment when wolves were reintroduced. Over time, the entire ecological balance changed because of it. Elks had overgrazed the land before, and now trees and other plants were given a chance to grow again. Beavers came, as came a variety of different insects and birds. So from the perspective of the elks, or the nearby farmers and their cattle, the wolf is a menace. From the perspective of the overall ecology, however, wolves are an essential part of the landscape.

I was surprised when a friend sent me that Isaiah quote above. I associate the celebration of light and darkness with the Eastern belief system—Goddess Durga and Kali in the Hindu Mythology, or Yin and Yang of the Tao Te Ching—not with the Christian faith. Isaiah was a prophet of the Old Testament though, and therefore closer to the Spirit that permeates everything. It was the Lord of the Old Testament that uttered these words, our perception of Yahweh changed with our evolution of consciousness.

There is a WORLD beyond the world we experience. It is a WORLD in which the lamb shall lie next to the lion. Jesus told us about this WORLD and showed us this WORLD with his acts of healing and making whole. Yet, Jesus himself only got so far. He death wasn’t exactly a showcase for transcending good and evil, much though the church tried to create a doctrine that this senseless slaughter was all meant to be for the betterment of humanity.

We alternate between two worlds. We are half human, half divine. There are times to see the beauty of yin and yang in action, and be part of it, and there are times to transcend the world we are in and become part of the World in which lamb and lion lie next to each other. Either way, it is good. There is a time for darkness, and there is a time for light.