Unfortunately, every story ever told and every life ever lived has pieces of sadness, some more than others. This sadness shapes our stories. Sometimes it draws us out of ourselves toward a bigger light and sometimes it cripples us and draws us deeper into a darkness with no apparent end.

Sing was born in the deep, damp underground tunnels of Avis, a world of beauty and adventure. But Sing had never experienced the great lights of Avis. She was raised surrounded by the dim shadows and the tortured glow of the underground caves; a glow bound by the limits of the darkness. Her mom and dad raised her in the darkness, not by choice, but because they were unaware of any other option. Darkness was simply an unavoidable part of their lives.

Sing grew. She was about three when she first started to run freely through the cold, dim maze of the underground tunnels with the other children.

For some of the children darkness was simply an assumed variable, but to Sing, the darkness ate away at her young soul. She grew more like the darkness every day. She used the darkness to her advantage, to hide the cruelty she wielded at others. Because there is no end to the depth of darkness, she sunk deeper into the void, finding herself amidst the cruelest of all the tunnel dwellers. They used her and saw her cruelty as a strength.

This was Sing’s life: All she knew and all she was.

I will not torture you with the details of the darkness to which Sing found herself part of. I don’t see what could possibly be gained other than to encourage those who find themselves deep in the walls of darkness that there is still hope. So instead, I will simply say, there is always hope… 

Sing ran through the darkness, rounding a corner, and dropping into a passage filled with water. She stopped suddenly, trying to hide her heavy breathing while finding herself in the darkest cave she had ever wandered into. Her pursuers were patiently closing in. She had met two of these men before but they somehow looked very different, and the third she had never seen. This was rare as she traveled farther than most through the intertwining passages that made up the tunnel system. 

She quietly sunk her hand into the dark, cool water, fumbling over the rocks trying to find the perfect weapon. The men steadily approached, stopping within a few feet of Sing, who was steadying herself on the other side of the rock wall. The men seemed neither cruel nor angry. But this did not stop Sing from her attack. She leapt around the corner swinging the rock and striking one man while landing on another. The man she hit dropped to the ground while she wrestled with the other two. Within a moment, the third man called “Sing. Wait.” He pulled a dim light from his satchel. While it was only a dim light, Sing, who had never seen any light, was nearly blinded. This gave the men a chance to check on their friend and back away from their aggressor. In her blindness, the man’s gentleness echoed in her head. It was a sweetness she had never heard nor experienced. She could almost taste it.

In the next few moments there was only stillness as Sing’s eyes began to adjust to the dim light . . . dim but perfectly pure light. Eventually the man holding the light spoke again in a tone that can only be described as merciful, “Sing, please, hear my voice. I see you. This life is not for you.” 

“How does he know my name? How could someone or something so beautiful be calling to me, let alone pursuing me through the darkest of all darkness.” Sing’s mind was whirling as the rock she had wielded at the men slipped from her fingers and hit the ground.

The man spoke one more time, “Follow me.” Then he turned and began walking in a direction she had not before ventured.

Her name continued to reverberate in her mind and it began to move its way deeper into her being. Her name, spoken by that man, seemed to carry a light of its own that penetrated her darkest thoughts. So she walked. She followed a man she had never seen before down a passage she had never traversed. 

As they walked, the passages began to widen and slowly the space around her grew brighter. Her eyes continued to adjust as they journeyed and then, the passage was no longer a passage. They were standing in the middle of colors, sounds, and smells Sing never knew existed. Tears streamed down Sing’s mud-smeared cheeks. She could have never, in her wildest dreams, imagined anything like this. How had she lived her whole life never knowing this beauty existed? Did no one else know? Or did they prefer the darkness? Her mind began whirling again. 

The man who had spoken earlier placed his hand on Sing’s shoulder with an indescribable kindness and looked deep into her eyes, as if reading her mind; he nodded.

Sing’s mind reeled for a moment and she began speaking out loud, but it was impossible to lose the peace that accompanied his touch. “Then I must go back. I don’t want to go back into that darkness, but I must go. They must know that you can lead them to this place.”

“Wherever you go, I will go with you,” the man replied.

“Please, what can I call you?” Sing asked. 

“Logos.”

“Tell me I can come back,” Sing pleaded.

“If you walk in my light, it can never be taken from you,” Logos answered. 

The two turned and began their return journey towards the darkness. As the space around them dimmed, Logos did not. His light guided their feet through the rocky passages; and true to his word, Logos never left Sing’s side.