Nicodemus first approached Jesus at night. He was cautious, curious, and unwilling to let the questions stirring within him go unanswered. In the darkness, he asked Jesus how a person could be born again.

By the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry, something in Nicodemus had changed. John 19 records him bringing an extraordinary amount of myrrh and aloe for Jesus’ burial—a public act of honor offered after the shame of the cross.

Nicodemus reminds me of the people who search quietly: the person opening a Bible late at night, the neighbor carrying questions they are not ready to speak aloud, or the stranger wondering whether there is more to life than what they can see.

Faith does not always announce itself loudly. Sometimes it begins with a private question in the dark and grows, slowly and faithfully, toward the light.