Punching Holes In The Darkness.

Deep in the subtropical rainforest that covers much of the wildly beautiful and mountainous West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island, there is a place that silently marks a tragedy. The name Cave Creek is forever etched in the minds of New Zealanders. The creek begins its life when it exits a relatively small cave, carved out of soft mudstone and tumbles down a steep, boulder strewn watercourse, until it finally debouches into a bigger river many kilometres (miles) away from its birthplace.

In 1995 a newly built viewing platform that had been erected high above the gorge through which Cave Creek ran, collapsed when 20 students from an outdoor recreational course were standing on it. The entire structure plunged more than 15 meters (49 feet) down into the creek, ending the lives of 14 of the students on the tumble of rocks below and leaving 4 more with terrible injuries. This tragic accident sent shock waves across our small nation.

There is another danger lurking in the dense forest of this area, waiting to trap the unwary. The mudstone or sedimentary shale of the region is relatively hard, yet soluble in rain-water that has been acidified by decomposition of plant materials. As a result of this unfortunate accident of nature, the entire area is riddled with caves and “sink-holes”. The caves are usually obvious… it’s the sink-holes that can be a trap for the careless. Most of them are no more than a meter (yard) wide at the top, but many of them are very deep; adding to their danger is the simple fact that they are frequently invisible! Well, not so much invisible, just completely obscured by the ever present moss and other forest floor litter.

It’s possible to stand right beside a sink-hole and never see it; it’s not until someone drops a rock in the centre of the hole, and watch as it’s swallowed up by the moss which quickly resumes its original shape, as if nothing had disturbed its surface. The moss often absorbs any noise of the rock falling into the void far below. The only way to avoid falling into one of these “accidents waiting to happen” is to never stray from the solitary road in the valley, or stay on the few walking tracks, that now only lead to the scene of the tragedy.

 Life is full of such “sink-holes”… avoiding them is a talent that many have yet to develop! The best advice for avoiding such pitfalls is as simple as it is clear… “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin”. 1 John 1:7

If we perpetually “walk in the light” then even carefully hidden dangers can be avoided. Walking in the light is no mere “imitation” of Christ… it’s an essential element of our very existence as Christians… our lives as believers are to be a lamp in this darkened world of ours.

What does it mean to “walk in the light”? When the Bible talks about “walking” in the spiritual sense, it principally means to order and frame the course and actions of our moral life, that is, to live our life so far as we are capable of living in subjection to God’s Holy Spirit that resides within us. The light that we walk in will illuminate our world.

This does not mean that we are equal to Christ, but rather that we are in the process of becoming His likeness. If we have fellowship, either with other believers or, more importantly, with God, then the sink-holes that trap the unwary will be avoided.

When Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island and other stories, was a young child, in the
days of gas street lighting, he was looking out the front window of his house one evening, fascinated by a lamplighter coming down the street, lighting the gas street lamps. He called to his grandmother, “Nana! Come quickly! There’s a man coming down the street punching holes in the darkness!”

The light of the righteous rejoices, but the lamp of the wicked shall be put out. Proverbs 13:9