The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.
Isaiah 61:19
Light.
I used to like to watch this show on television - something about a young doctor who has to practice medicine in a backwater town in Alaska in order to pay back his student loan. It was quirky with some really off-the-wall characters and situations. I could relate to the episode that had the whole town wearing visors with little light bulbs in the brim. Someone in the town had invented the things because of the long hours of darkness in the winter - because the people needed light. So they carried it around with them. The little lighted visors kept the townsfolk happy. Quirky. I got it; I crave light as well.
Several years ago, I went to Indiana to care for my grandmother who had undergone surgery for an aortal aneurism. I spent autumn and part of the winter with her in the split level home my grandfather had built for their retirement. I don't know that I had ever spent much time with her in the cold months; I think a Christmas here and there... She did this thing to insulate the windows. She folded newspaper and pushed it between the window frame and the window - sealing the cracks, she said. Then she spread newspaper across the whole window and taped it in - then closed the curtains - for the winter! She said when I paid the utilities, I would understand... But it was like turning out the sun. I remember going out to sit on the front porch, bundled in my down coat and hat, just so I could spend some time in the light. Not the artificial-light-bulb light; I needed sunlight.
I did some research on light. It was kind of fascinating in that I'm-not-a-physicist way that I probably didn't really understand everything I read. But from what I could tell, it took awhile for anyone to figure out light. It ends up being a combination of things - particles that act like waves - that radiate (like 'rays'). It reflects. It refracts. It can be absorbed. The light we see isn't even a thousandth of the kinds of electro-magnetic radiation that travel around. Radio waves are a form of light. So are microwaves. And infrared, ultraviolet, x-rays, and gamma rays.
There's more... Colors. We don't actually see the color, we see its reflection. Whatever is not absorbed by the object, whatever is reflected off of it, is what we see. So an apple isn't really red. It's all the other colors. Red is exactly what the apple isn't because the red we see is reflected from the apple. Away. Not part of it. How cool is that??
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.
So, imagine a light brighter than the sun. Imagine the creator of light.
Maybe what I've always craved wasn't just physical sunlight. Maybe it was glory. Maybe I, too, have that God-shaped hole in my inner soul - a God-shaped hole that can only be filled by holy light - the light of God - the Glory of God. Maybe I need to allow God to be my everlasting light. Hmmm....
I used to like to watch this show on television - something about a young doctor who has to practice medicine in a backwater town in Alaska in order to pay back his student loan. It was quirky with some really off-the-wall characters and situations. I could relate to the episode that had the whole town wearing visors with little light bulbs in the brim. Someone in the town had invented the things because of the long hours of darkness in the winter - because the people needed light. So they carried it around with them. The little lighted visors kept the townsfolk happy. Quirky. I got it; I crave light as well.
Several years ago, I went to Indiana to care for my grandmother who had undergone surgery for an aortal aneurism. I spent autumn and part of the winter with her in the split level home my grandfather had built for their retirement. I don't know that I had ever spent much time with her in the cold months; I think a Christmas here and there... She did this thing to insulate the windows. She folded newspaper and pushed it between the window frame and the window - sealing the cracks, she said. Then she spread newspaper across the whole window and taped it in - then closed the curtains - for the winter! She said when I paid the utilities, I would understand... But it was like turning out the sun. I remember going out to sit on the front porch, bundled in my down coat and hat, just so I could spend some time in the light. Not the artificial-light-bulb light; I needed sunlight.
I did some research on light. It was kind of fascinating in that I'm-not-a-physicist way that I probably didn't really understand everything I read. But from what I could tell, it took awhile for anyone to figure out light. It ends up being a combination of things - particles that act like waves - that radiate (like 'rays'). It reflects. It refracts. It can be absorbed. The light we see isn't even a thousandth of the kinds of electro-magnetic radiation that travel around. Radio waves are a form of light. So are microwaves. And infrared, ultraviolet, x-rays, and gamma rays.
There's more... Colors. We don't actually see the color, we see its reflection. Whatever is not absorbed by the object, whatever is reflected off of it, is what we see. So an apple isn't really red. It's all the other colors. Red is exactly what the apple isn't because the red we see is reflected from the apple. Away. Not part of it. How cool is that??
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.
So, imagine a light brighter than the sun. Imagine the creator of light.
Maybe what I've always craved wasn't just physical sunlight. Maybe it was glory. Maybe I, too, have that God-shaped hole in my inner soul - a God-shaped hole that can only be filled by holy light - the light of God - the Glory of God. Maybe I need to allow God to be my everlasting light. Hmmm....
Let your light shine in front of others!
ReplyDeleteAmen!