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Good Morning. The Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield has just written his first children's book The Darkest Dark . It's about a child who overcomes his fear of the darkness to become an astronaut himself. In an interview on this programme yesterday Colonel Hadfield talked of our natural fear of darkness, as well as darkness being, and I quote, "a place where your dreams are". What's often described as a childlike fear of darkness haunts many into adulthood - and not just in a physical sense. A couple of weeks ago Out of the Darkness Walk Sunday was celebrated across the United States. People raised money for those affected by mental health issues. "I was in a dark place"....."It was my darkest moment"..."I could not see any way out". Such are the frequent refrains of those awfully affected by a huge range of mental health disorders. What is sometimes described as the darkness of the soul plunges some to unfathomable depths. People experiencing such trauma must be heard. In the opening verses of the Old Testament, a brooding darkness covers the face of the deep whilst a wind hovers over the face of the waters. The writer uses the same Hebrew verb as that of an eagle soaring above, waiting to pounce and to devour its prey. But as the theologian Kathryn Greene-McCreight argues, darkness and light are inseparable. She writes: "Darkness descends only when light wanes. Darkness is the shadow that light casts behind whatever obstructs its path." The light is here: it is real. It shows up the darkness. And the darkness tells us a great deal about ourselves. Tomorrow morning, I will be baptising a young child and, at the end of the service, I will present his family with a candle and say the words: "Shine as a light in the world to the glory of God the Father." Whenever I say these words I am totally aware of how tall an order it is - to suggest that any human being, however old or young, can ever totally cast away the childlike fear of darkness in all its guises, physical, mental and spiritual. But if we look hard enough through the darkness of the conflicts of our world we DO see examples of the light all around us: in the unconditional love of a child, in the generosity of our relationships: in the wisdom of the elderly. And it is because the light is also always present , showing up the darkness for what it is, that I do not fear or lose faith in the hope and joy which the flickering candle forever represents.