Observation

 May 29, 2021

Sir William Oiler, famous physician and co-founder of Johns Hopkins hospital, was instrumental in moving students from the lecture hall to the bedside for clinical training. He was also a stickler for detail in observation. In one of his lectures, he indicated a vial on his desk and announced to the class that by sampling the contents of the vial, the student could ascertain the illness from which the patient suffered. Suiting action to words, he dipped a finger into the vial and into his mouth before passing the vial around the room. Each student gingerly dipped a finger into the vial and sampled its contents, usually followed by a grimace. When it had returned to his desk, he announced, “Now you shall see what I mean by observation. Had you observed closely, you would have noticed I dipped my index finger into the bottle, but put my middle finger into my mouth.”

Too often, we merely glance through the Scriptures, imagining that since we’ve read a particular text before, it has nothing new to tell us, when in fact, there are depths of meaning only plumbed by repetition, study, and meditation. I’ve been reading Colossians for the past two weeks, over and over again, and each time I read, something new is uncovered. It is a mine of infinite value, but the veins are deep, hidden from the casual observer.

Today it was a phrase in the first chapter, verse 13, where Paul says, “He has delivered us from the power of darkness...” What is the power of darkness? The absence of light has no power in itself, It cannot hurt anyone. It’s just...dark. It’s what can happen in the dark that is dangerous. We can stumble, someone might be hiding in it to do us harm. The darkness is not the danger; it’s what lurks within it. So we walk tentatively, feeling our way, stepping carefully lest we trip or fall, or stumble across the hidden attacker.

The Christian needn’t fear the darkness because God sees as well in the darkness as he does in the light. Psalm 139:12 tells us that “the darkness and the light are both alike to you.” So why do we choose to live tentatively or fearfully? Why give power to that which has none of its own? In Christ, we have been delivered from this irrational and faithless fear; it need not have authority over us. Later in Colossians 1, Paul tells us that it was Jesus who created the powers and authorities; they exist only because he continues to will their existence. But he does not will them to have authority over us. That he reserves to himself, and if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have victory in this life and the next. This is but a single phrase in this entire letter, but I am grateful tonight that when I read through it once more, I caught its sparkle of light reflected in the darkness of my mind and turned aside to look more closely. May Jesus Christ be praised!