Psalm 139: 11-12

If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night," even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you. Psalm 139: 11-12 NRSV

By this time in the psalm, there is almost a playfulness going on here. It is like the psalmist has tried several ways to think of how to get away from God and nothing has worked. So, the psalmist is just thinking up things. This is almost like a young child with their what if, then what, and now what kind of questions. There is a seriousness yet a playfulness in these images. It is almost as if the psalmist already knows God will also be in the dark but it has to get mentioned. Or maybe the psalmist is trying to stay one step ahead of the reader, as though the reader might think of a way to get away from God.

Here the darkness is nothing to God. For us it is everything and can often be a scary place. Even as an adult, there is still something about that dark that is unknown, uncomfortable and slightly menacing. But for God, there is nothing scary about the dark. God is at home there as much as God is at home in the light. God is with us in the daytime and at night. Light, darkness and twilight are all the same to God. God is also with us when we go through times in our lives when we feel like we are in the oppressive, shadowing and evil-seeming dark. For God, these times are just like the good times of our lives, for God it makes no difference.

God, help me to know that you are there even in the darkest of nights. Help me to know that the darkness is as bright as day to You. Amen.