CHRISTIAN LIFE
Chasing the Afterimage
Afterimage: An image that continues to appear in one’s vision after the exposure to the original image has ceased.
I’ve adopted the habit of leaving the lights out when I go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. When I return to bed I sometimes flip the switch on and off so as to see the layout of furniture, to avoid banging a shin or stubbing my toe on the corner of the cedar chest or the leg of a dresser.
In the darkness that immediately follows this on-and-off light-switch flick, my eye perceives an afterimage. By means of the afterimage I navigate my return to the bed.
The other night, the thought entered my mind that this procedure of using the afterimage as a guide for my footsteps could be an illustration or metaphor for our spiritual walk.
We live in the material world, but do our inward seeking in a spiritual world, an immaterial inner world as it were. In the midst of the darkness there we see a flash of illumination, retain the afterimage and move in a direction with this inner light as a guide.
For the Christian, this illumination comes through the Word of God, which has also been called the Bread of Life, like the manna that sustained the Israelites in the wilderness. Or as the psalmist wrote, “Your Word is a lamp unto my path.”
Except that it’s dark out there. Or rather, in there on our own inward journey. When we catch a glimpse of light, it’s just a flash… so we follow the afterimage.
Our vision is dim. Spiritual truth is obscure. We do the best we can and follow the light.
