There is much good in the world. Yet, there is so much evil too. In the Bible, evil is portrayed as darkness, and holiness and life are portrayed as light. Into our world of darkness, God promised a Saviour who would come in the future: The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine. (Isaiah 9:2, NLT) In God's timing, Jesus came into our world: The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1:9–12, NLT) Jesus said later: I have come as a light to shine in this dark world, so that all who put their trust in me will no longer remain in the dark. (John 12:46, NLT) Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.” (John 8:12, NLT) A few centuries later, the testimony of one man who believed he was close to death is moving. Cyprian moving worlds express what countless Christians have experiences after having trusted in Jesus for salvation: When the persecution began again, in 249, a lawyer and even a senator in the government of the Roman empire, a man named Cyprian (200-258), believing that he was on his deathbed, wrote a letter to his friend Donatus. “Donatus,”—he said, in effect,—”this is a cheerful world indeed as I see it from my fair garden, under the shadow of my vines. But if I could ascend some high mountain, and look out over the wide lands, you know very well that I should see: brigands on the highways, pirates on the seas, armies fighting, cities burning, in the amphitheaters men murdered to please applauding crowds, selfishness and cruelty and misery and despair under all roofs. It is a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world. But I have discovered in the midst of it a company of quiet and holy people who have learned a great secret. They have found a joy which is a thousand times better than any of the pleasures of our sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not: they are masters of their souls. They have overcome the world. These people, Donatus, are the Christians,—and I am one of them.
