3 Nephi 4-7 Light of Christ

In these chapters the time for the Savior to appear to the Nephites is drawing near.  The signs that Samuel the Lamanite spoke of earlier are beginning to happen.  There are great signs in the sky.  There begin to be terrible storms and upheavals that change the layout of the land.  And then it is dark – really dark!  They couldn’t even create a fire.  This quiet darkness lasted for three days.  What was happening in those three days?  I wonder what I would have been doing.  Everyone had the same affliction.  No amount of food storage was going to help them in this one.  Most likely they couldn’t have reached it if they could have felt their way toward it.  That would have been a challenge.

So what was happening?  Probably for the first time in the history of the world, the light of Christ had truly been snuffed out.  When the Savior died, his light went with him.  Is this a phenomenon that only occurred amongst the Nephites on this continent?  I don’t remember reading anything about light being taken in Jerusalem when Christ was crucified.  There were great tempests and storms.  

Matthew 27:45-46 makes it clear that the people did not experience exactly the same things. 

45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.

46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

So even though there was darkness, it was not prolonged and it doesn’t seem to be with the same intensity.  Not that it means anything.  The Lord can do what he wants.  But I’ve heard it said in more places than one that Christ is the light of the world.  Without him there is no light.  Certainly the Nephites experienced this as Christ, the light of the world, was crucified.  No doubt, those who were waiting in faith for this event to occur were in awe at it.  And we know through reading that those who were witnessing it and might not have been all that faithful were bemoaning the fact they had not repented earlier and believed (verses 24-25). 

So where am I headed with this topic?  Certainly in my own life, as soon as I turned my life around and began to embrace the teachings of the Savior and his true church upon the earth, my life began to be filled with light.  My blessings were coming at me so fast I was in awe.  Everything seemed brighter and more beautiful – the mountains, the deserts, the flowers, even the silly grass where I worked that was dead and had been painted green by the government.  That’s another story.  I saw color again.  I could SEE! 

Christ is the Light of the World.  Without him in our lives, the world is a very dark and dreary place.  Maybe I needed to experience that for myself.  I’m grateful every day of my life that relatively speaking, that experience was short lived and that I have an eternity before me that will be filled with the light that fills us with joy – as long as that is my desire and I live for it.