Finding Hope...In God's Plan

Second Week of Advent

“In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:4-5).

by Michele Bowden on December 5, 2022

Our NorthStar Women’s group went on our first Creatives Retreat this October. As the leaves displayed their peak colors of crimson, mustard, and tangerine, there was such a bright array of His glory. It was a true delight to breathe the mountain air just as the leaves began to fall and the dark of winter descended.

One of the new things we learned from our creative time together was a printing technique called Cyanotype. The process produces a cyan-blue color used for art as a monochrome print. This old art form has been recently resurrected and is used in prints, cards, and even jewelry – which was what we were trying to create. Note that I said, “trying!”

My friend, Koryn, pulled out all the supplies. She told us that she had prepared some steps in advance to save time, including prepping the paper with the photosensitive chemicals in a dark bathroom and wrapping the paper in several layers of tinfoil to keep the light out. She was certain she had sealed them well.

Koryn asked us to go out and collect several items from nature that would provide unique designs for the imprint. Of course, we collected some of those crimson, mustard, and tangerine-colored leaves. When we returned to the classroom, we placed our treasures on our paper, exposed them to UV light, and poured a final solution on them to bring out the white shapes.

For some reason, they were all turning out dark blue without revealing the image. We couldn’t figure it out! Some of the papers were showing faint lines but nothing helped to sharpen the edges. We were looking for the crisp white images of our nature collections to rise to the surface.

We tried longer sessions with UV light. We tried more solution. We tried more rinsing. Nothing worked. We continued to get more blue images.

Koryn finally said, “I can’t believe it. Some light must have snuck into the tinfoil-wrapped papers!”

And then one of the members of our group said, “Well, the light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it!”

Wow! It shocked all of us like it must have shocked the shepherds when the angels showed up on the scene at Jesus’ birth!

We realized that God didn’t want us to produce anything with that project. God wanted us to learn an object lesson taught by Him. We were not the creators. We were actually the participants!

We learned so many truths that day. His light can penetrate even the smallest darkness. This tells us He can seep into any small crevice and bring about great light. Ultimately, we can walk through any darkness because it cannot consume us – His light always penetrates!

This Christmas, we remember that He brought a tiny baby down to earth to shine against the darkness of this world.

Further Reflection: What are some ways you have seen light shining in the darkness this season?

Additional Reading: John 9:5