It was dusk, and already getting dark under the tree canopy, and we still had a couple hundred yards to go on the trail. Laura and Jacob were rushing on towards the trailhead parking area, and Tray was somewhere in the middle, trying not to lose sight of either them or me, as I was bringing up the rear. Philip hung back with me, and we picked our way together over rocks and gnarled roots.

“Don’t worry,” he told me. “I’ll say I Corinthians 13, so we won’t be scared.”

He was probably 10 or 11 at the time, and we had been practicing that chapter in Wednesday night Bible class. It was something the 2nd-5th graders memorized every Fall, and then they would recite the entire chapter for the congregation. Each year there was an appointed leader among the students. Someone, I reminded them each week, who had to know the chapter so well that they could keep plowing forward when others faltered or got off on the wrong track. This particular year, Philip had earned that designation.

So, he recited the entire chapter for me, there in the woods, as the darkness deepened, so that we wouldn’t be scared.

And he wasn’t wrong. I’ve always been afraid of the dark, easily spooked. My imagination is not always my friend.

I think that’s why I’ve always been drawn to the concept of light, the symbolism and allegory of light. Light is the antidote to darkness.

In him was life, and that life was the light of men. John 1:4

How beautiful is that? Jesus, the life, the light of men. He was there creating the world. He was there to save the world. Because God so loved the word.

I’ve written before about how I Corinthians 13 is one of my favorite passages of Scripture. It’s the perfect antidote to fear of the dark.

Love is patient, love is kind, love never fails. Even in the dark.