From Darkness Into Light
MANDEL, Myra

http://www.artfromthewell.com/DarknessIntoLight.html

Barely discernable at the bottom right is a simple flower bulb, growing by night, hidden under the earth. Similar in shape and color to a common onion, yet it contains within its cells an invisible blueprint for a flower of  amazing geometrical symmetry and exotic color.

A small bud soon appears above the ground, tightly closed yet protecting within it a perfectly formed flower, unseen as yet by man. It opens in daylight, revealing a multi-hued amaryllis hidden inside.

In the same manner each person is formed by G-d in the womb, an amazing complexity of physical systems and organs housing a divine soul. A new, unique person, unlike any other that lived before, takes shape in darkness, and emerges into the light fully formed.

Behind the amaryllis emerge the words of Psalm 139, where King David marvels how that which is hidden to man by darkness is revealed as light to the eyes of G-d.

⁷Where can I go from your spirit?
   Or where can I flee from your presence?
⁸If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
   if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
⁹If I take the wings of the morning
   and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
¹⁰even there your hand shall lead me,
   and your right hand shall hold me fast.
¹¹If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me,
   and the light around me become night’,
¹²even the darkness is not dark to you;
   the night is as bright as the day,
   for darkness is as light to you.

King David explains how even when man, through his own choices, dwells in a place of darkness, devoid of spiritually, even then G-d reaches out his hand to bring each person closer to Him.

The psalm describes three types of people who try to hide from G-d:

The person who is in a state of hopelessness , symbolized by the grave, from which there is seemingly no hope of return. Yet in that pit of deepest despair, he finds that G-d is present, He is a source of hope and encouragement which enables man to rise above his despair.

The second is the person who has willfully sinned again and again, he has “made his bed” in places where G-d’s commandments are mocked, he has fallen so low that it seems his soul is beyond redemption. Even then, as we say in the prayers of Yom Kippur, G-d does not desire the death of the sinner, he desires that the sinner should return to Him and merit life.

The third is the man or woman who may be a good, kind and helping person, yet denies the existence of G-d, and flees as far as he can from any evidence that may cause him to question his accepted world view and acknowledge  G-d ‘s presence in the world. Even though this person has intentionally blinded himself, G-d’s unseen hand will reach out to him from beyond his spiritual darkness, and guide him, step by step, toward knowledge.

The psalm ends on a note of hope, describing how night will shine as day when we realize the futility of trying to hide from the One who has created us or run away from His presence.