Chiaroscuro

"Praise God, Who has called us out of darkness, into His marvelous light."

-1 Peter 2:9

Chiaroscuro paints a picture of paradox, denoting the division between light and shadow.  This sacred interplay was formed in the beginning, Creation's first order of business: 

"God said, 'Let there be light', and there was light.  And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness."

-Genesis 1:3,4

God could've done away with darkness completely, but He didn't; Genesis 1:5 tells us that He allowed darkness to remain, calling it Night.

We are surrounded in Creation by pictures of God, lessons of His love, reminders of redemption.  The powerful paradox of light and darkness is no exception.  God allowed this juxtaposition to serve as analogy, to shepherd us into a deeper understanding of amazing grace. 

When Adam and Eve crossed that fateful border from from the land of the living into death, from God's Light to the devil's darkness, there was no way back.  Imprisoned in shadow, chained by their choices, they had passed over into a place from which, humanly speaking, there was no return, for them or their posterity.

But God, Who is rich in mercy, Whose lavish love for us is not beset by boundaries, and Whose anguished heart would not settle for such separation, left the light of Heaven and crossed over into our night.  He knew we'd never find our way home in the darkness so He became flesh and the lost became found.  

He Himself became the Way, disarming darkness, bridging the distance from Night to Day.

Praise God indeed, Who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light...

"Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me.  If I say, 'Surely the darkness shall fall on me,' even the night shall be light about me; indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, but the night shines as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike to You."

-Psalm 139:10-12

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