I was excited to bring my new paddle board to Mexico where we stayed with some friends in their condo. My husband had given me an inflatable, portable paddle board for my birthday, and I was thrilled for the opportunity to try it out on the beautiful Caribbean Sea!

Our first day was a bit windy but the water didn’t look too rough and I couldn’t wait! We inflated the board, blew up my new pink life preserver and I set sail with my bright pink paddle and paddle board! I absolutely love it! A rock-retaining wall had been built just off the beach preserving the beach and providing calm waters close to shore. I paddled though the calm water with the wind at my back and turned left heading out into the cove. Changing direction, I fought the wind a bit but was able to maneuver past the anchored party boats in the quiet cove. As I attempted to circle around a rock barrier separating the cove from a channel, I passed the opening between rocks, the gateway to the sea. The wind whipped me beyond that gateway right into the rocks. I decided to abort exploring the channel and work on returning against the wind to the beach.

As I maneuvered my board back toward the cove, I seemed to be caught in a wind tunnel. I paddled hard barely making any progress a way from the rocks. Inch by inch I crept toward the cove focusing on breaking out of this wind tunnel. I attempted to point my board in different angles to catch a break from the wind and kept paddling as hard as my little wings would paddle.

I felt like I was making progress through the wind tunnel when I heard, “Watch out!” from a man on a party boat. Instinctively I looked up and saw a ship barreling into the channel directly towards me. I screamed and paddled backwards out of its way as the wind swept me back into the rocks.

I was thankful someone on the party boat was sober enough to notice the ship and alerted me. I had been so focused on my paddling that I hadn’t heard nor seen that ship. I took a deep breath, set off back into the wind tunnel while watching for ships, and made it back to shore with aching arms.

That evening when the wind had died down, my husband and I sat under the light by the pool and gazed out onto the dark quiet waters of the Caribbean Sea. That was the type of water I longed to paddle on. I wondered what it would be like to take my paddle board out on those quiet waters right then in the dark.

I imagined the experience and feared what may be lurking in the water, what I would not be able to see, and the strange noises I might hear. I knew that ship would not see me in the dark and a real dread overtook me as I resolved to never paddle board at night.

Scripture came to mind about walking in the light and I wondered why would anyone would choose to walk in the dark?

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12

This thought shed light (pardon the pun) on the fact that Jesus is the light of the world and what that means. Let’s think this through. Light cannot be anything other than what it is. It is bright; it dispels darkness; it enables people to see what they are doing. Jesus sheds light on what we do wrong and causes us to see our hurtfulness to Him and others. He shows us in His Word what is right and changes our hearts to want to live in His light, to do what is right, to live forever with Him in eternity. He forgives our sins and causes us to want to walk closer with Him, to do more of what is right, to love more, help, serve, and reflect His light to others. Wow!

His Light is righteousness, truth, and life.

He illuminates the paths we should take. He takes our hand and leads us into the unknown because he knows the unknown. He knows what lurks in the water. He guides us around obstacles, carries us through rough waters, and is an ever-present presence in our lives so we are never alone. We will have troubles and will struggle though wind tunnels in this life, but he won’t ever abandon us nor leave us to figure it out on our own. (He even sends people to alert us to ships barreling towards us, thank you Jesus!)

His light covers us with peace, wraps us in His love and floods us with joy. Oh, my dear friends, why would we ever choose to navigate through this dark world on our own? That would be like choosing to paddle board in the dark of the night and hope for the best. No thank you. I choose to paddle board in the light. I choose Jesus. How about you?

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 1 John 1:7

For further insights into Jesus being the Light of the World check out these links:

https://www.gotquestions.org/light-of-the-world.html

https://newspring.cc/studies/matthew-a-28-day-bible-study/light-me-up