But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may proclaim the virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. (1 Peter 2:9)
“Sallie, you come away from that light. Come on, Baby-girl, we stay down here where Master can’t find us.”
Maroons, they were called, runaway slaves who hid in the swamps during the U.S. Civil War. Pattin and his wife were examples. They bore fifteen children inside a cave they dug from the earth. Imagine those kids living underground, in constant fear, not feeling sunshine on their skin until after the war when they were teenagers.
Like the Pattin children, we are born into a world system that’s as unnatural as a cave. We grow up slaves to the darkness of wealth, appearance, and acceptance. We are created to live in the sunshine of God’s love, but our earthen cravings keep us blind to the fulness of life.
When I was eleven, Jesus called me out of the cave. For a while I lived free above ground, delivered from the counterfeit life. But in my teen years, my cave-dulled senses couldn’t handle the radiance of unlimited love. I crawled back into the pit.
Now, I’m a part-time caveman. I dance in the sweet air of liberation, but then sneak back down the tunnel to slavery. The problem is I misunderstand my identity.
I am not a caveman, a mole hiding his fear and shame from the light of truth. I’ve been chosen for freedom, made into a royal prince, adopted into a holy nation of people belonging to God Almighty. At great expense to Jesus, I’m emancipated. That’s who I really am—not a cave-dweller. I don’t want to spend any more of my years in that half-existence.
Prayer: Savior, thank you for calling me out of darkness into your marvelous light.