In Him was life, and that life was the light of men

In him was LIFE
Another of the great words, the great themes of this Gospel. LIFE for our lifelessness, our hopelessness, our inner deadness. LIFE, the great antidote for the depression that is inevitable when we lose sight of the source of life.

And that life was the LIGHT of men.
Light, like God himself, is one of the simple, humble, unregarded, taken for granted things.
Light like God is many things
SAFETY
And yet from earliest childhood we know that in it lies our safety. In cities, when there is street lighting, crime falls. When there is a city wide power failure, crime soars. At night, in the darkness, the world over, crime increases exponentially--murder, rape, muggings, burglaries. We knows these things from earliest childhood if we are female. There are few places in the world in which a woman can walk completely safely alone after dark. Certainly not Oxford, England.