Today was Baptism Sunday in my church, New Life Church. As I’ve shared before, whenever we have baptisms, as each person comes up out of the water, I say a little prayer for them that they will be another light in the darkness. For some reason, during today’s service, I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit even stronger than I normally do during these baptisms.

For one thing, the timing was perfect, being one week after Easter. For another thing, the worship team was playing the perfect baptism song, Up from the Waters, by New Life Worship, from their new album. Finally, there was a touching moment that stuck with me throughout the day today, so much so that I decided to write about this instead of what I was planning on writing about today. The moment was brief and simple: a young woman, someone I don’t even know, raised her arms in triumph as she came up out of the water, then put her face in her hands and started weeping with joy.

I thought, What a great start on her journey of being a light in the darkness.

Of course, the battle between good and evil has been characterized by light and darkness in literature and movies practically since those media were created. It is also the reality of the world today. Sadly, all too often these days, it seems as though the darkness is winning. But here’s the thing: it doesn’t take much light to overcome darkness.

Even a small light shining on a hilltop is visible for miles.

So for today, I thought I’d include a few verses from the Bible that show the progression of Light, how it came into the world through Jesus, and then how He lit the flame in each of us to keep His light burning and spreading.

First, the Apostle John introduces the conflict between light and darkness:

Then, several chapters further into his gospel, John remembers when Jesus told all who were listening:

Switching to Matthew’s gospel, we see Jesus handing the torch to us:

The Apostle Paul reminded us of this in his letter to the Ephesians when he said:

And so it is that we do not have to worry about the darkness in the world. Darkness ceases to be darkness when the slightest light shines into it. We are each a light in the darkness, lit from the original torch of Jesus.

And the darkness will never overcome us.