After reading a while, I switched off the light and looked out the window at the dark sky. The moon was a sliver against the blackness and only two stars shone down from a featureless map — nothing else, just a fraction of moon and two stars.

I closed my eyes wishing I could see more. Surely the night sky should be a map of stars? Where were they? Where were the guiding lights I could not see? Then I looked again and they were there in droves, a map of diamonds on black velvet. But they were invisible until I closed off all other lights and let my eyes adjust. It didn't happen immediately, it took time. Everything else had to be closed off to see the visible difference.

I thought of Isaac who went out into the fields at night to meditate and in the stillness he saw God's gift to him.

I remembered the Psalmist who said, "My eyes stay open through the watches of the night to meditate on your promises."

I found that it is when I take Paul's advice to Timothy, and shut out the rubbish of the world, that I see the diamonds of God's Word. They are like a map of stars in the sky, visible only when we give them total space.

Close out the world for a time.
Close out the world for a time, and let yourself adjust to being alone in total space with God's Word. You will see a visible difference in it.

(References: Genesis 24:63; Psalms 119:148; 1 Timothy 4)