I was recently in Texas with my wife and three kids visiting my family. While we were there, we decided to tour a local cave system. You’ve heard the saying that everything is bigger in Texas, and this cave was no exception.

The tour guide led us on an hour-long adventure through the cave system that took us one hundred and eighty feet underground. When we were as deep as we would go that day, the guide assured us that we would be safe as he led us into complete darkness. It was a darkness so thick that you couldn’t see your own hand in front of your face. In the absence of light, you have no sense of your surroundings. Your brain can’t tell whether you’re in a narrow tunnel or a vast cavern, whether you’re near danger or safely on the path. It was disorienting to say the least.

Then, with one push of a button, the lights flooded the room, revealing soaring ceilings, elegant stone archways, and breathtaking formations. The internal shift I experienced in that moment was fascinating. Just seconds before, I had been disoriented and uneasy in total darkness—yet the beauty had been there all along. I simply couldn’t see it until the light came on.

St. Paul prays for this very kind of spiritual illumination for the Church. In the first chapter of Ephesians, he writes:

[T]he God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, . . . give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe, according to the working of his great might. (Eph 1:17–19)

The cave tour guide had promised we would be safe. Yet once we were in total darkness, it was easy to become disoriented and lose sight of that promise and of the beauty waiting just beyond the discomfort.

The Word of God is like the light in that cave: it doesn’t create beauty—it reveals it. God knows how easily we as humans forget his promises when confronted with darkness and uncertainty, so He sent his only Son, Jesus, to reveal his light to the world. Through the Holy Spirit, He inspired the apostles to record divine revelation in the Scriptures so that the light of his truth might flood the caverns of our hearts and minds. In that light, his beauty is revealed. And we, like those first believers, are invited to stand in awe at the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe.