Sermoncitos, a family tradition
Darkness
Baby’s eyes are small and weak
Even their mother they don’t recognize.
But darkness from day my baby can tell.
Oh, that I could see that well.
In the day my baby’s eyes turn,
turn toward light coming in the window.
But I many times, even in the daylight,
darkness do choose over light.
Life has always been a battle between the forces of darkness and light. Jesus pled with the people of his day to see the light that he offered them. “...Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness “ (John 12: 35, 46) .
The Book of Mormon prophets used this same type of language. “For behold, there is a curse upon all this land, that destruction shall come upon all those workers of darkness, according to the power of God, when they are fully ripe; therefore I desire that this people might not be destroyed. Yea, and be the land forever and ever unto those workers of darkness and secret combinations, even unto destruction, except they repent before they are fully ripe” (Alma 37:28,31).
The prophets of the latter-day also called us to come forth from darkness into the light, defining those terms clearly. “And that which doth not edify is not of God, and is darkness. That which is of God is light…. (D&C 50:23-24). ‘That which is of God is LIGHT; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light growth brighter and brighter until the perfect day.’ ’The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth’ (D&C 93:36).”
The key to walking in the light, is to follow Christ. “…I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12). The scriptural definition of darkness is the rejection of Christ’s teachings. “And it came to pass that I beheld, after they had dwindled in unbelief they became a dark, and loathsome, and a filthy people, full of idleness and all manner of abominations” (1 Nephi 12:23). Nephi prophecied of his descendants that the “...gospel of Jesus Christ shall be declared among them; wherefore, they shall be restored unto the knowledge of their fathers, and also to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, which was had among their fathers. And then shall they rejoice; for they shall know that it is a blessing unto them from the hand of God; and their scales of darkness shall begin to fall from their eyes; and many generations shall not pass away among them, save they shall be a pure and a delightsome people” (2 Nephi 30: 5,6). To become a dark people, is to reject the light.
As we enter the Easter season, let us follow the warnings of the prophets to reject works of darkness. “…Let us walk in the LIGHT of the Lord” (Isaiah 2:5).