If you’ve ever tried looking at a film negative, it’s really hard to tell what’s going on in the picture. The dark parts are supposed to be light, the light parts are supposed to be dark, everything is all inside out. But if you develop the negative, you get an actual picture that is full of light in all of the right places and actually makes sense. To turn a negative into a positive image, you first need a darkroom. The film has to be washed and treated with various chemicals, first to wash away all of the non-affected photosensitive particles, then to seal in place the ones that were affected by the light, and then finally in pure water to wash away all of the leftover chemicals. All of this has to happen in the dark because any extra light at this stage would only ruin the final photo. Once this has been done, the film negative is placed on an enlarger which has a light projector that shines through the film negative and we finally end up with a picture that looks like it’s supposed to. We all pass through negative experiences in this life. They don’t look or feel right and they don’t make sense. Sometimes we have to just be kept in the dark and sit with those negatives. We can exercise faith and repent and renew our baptismal covenants and be washed in the living waters of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and yet we’re still in the dark and the negatives still don’t make any sense. But if we will exercise patience as we journey through the dark room, eventually we will be placed in the enlarger and the pure, unfiltered light of Heavenly Truth will pour through the negatives in our lives, and we will see that the areas that had been dark are now filled with light. When we are bathed in the light of our Savior’s love and filled with His redeeming power, all that was wrong can be made right, all that was dark can be light, the negatives can develop into positives. Where there was darkness and confusion, now there is light and truth and beauty and goodness. Let us not begrudge the time we must spend in the dark and let us endure with patience the negatives we must carry with us until our souls can be enlarged and our understanding enlightened and we can see more clearly than ever how the negatives become positive.
