Dark is Never Cheap
In Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge declares that he loves the dark because “dark is cheap.” While I hate to admit it, Scrooge is right. Think of it. It costs nothing to light or heat and requires no maintenance. To the stingy, the beauty of “dark” is that it completely conceals that which needs to be fixed.
However, on the other hand, dark is not cheap. It exacts a terribly high price from the lives it conceals. Those who are consumed by the darkness of hunger or thirst, those who have no clothing to wear or houses to live in, those ill and those in prison, those Jesus referred to as the “least of these” — to them dark is not cheap or passive. It actively steals their hopes and dreams, takes from them their dignity and self-worth, and makes it impossible for them to raise their eyes in search of a brighter tomorrow. Dark comes in many disguises, but its goal is always the same: the complete and total destruction of the weak and the concealment of its crime from the strong – those who could do something about it.
Matthew 25: Ministries and our many volunteers and supporters are committed to bringing light into the dark places of life. Often what we see is unpleasant, the result of years of dark neglect. But once seen, we can do no other. Our lives have been touched. Besides, it is there in the dark, living and caring for those victimized by it, that we encounter and find the One we have been looking for; the One we call Jesus.
It is our hope that the following words from Isaiah will someday come true for the people we are seeking to help: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned” (Isaiah 9:2).
