The Light of Life

Throughout the Bible, God continually describes Himself in association with light. He "wraps Himself in light as with a garment" (Psalm 104:2). He is one who "lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see" (1 Timothy 6:16). The apostle John says that "God is light; in him there is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5, emphasis mine). And Revelation 21:23 explains that the Holy City of Jerusalem on the New Earth "does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light."

What is light? What do we know about it? Last Sunday, Pastor Dave launched into a little impromptu physics lesson during his sermon. Being a language girl myself (my husband is the math and science guru), some of it was over my head, but what I caught was fascinating. Consider these interesting concepts:

Scientists have no explanation for the original source of light. Where did it come from?
"And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light" (Genesis 1:3).

Light is essential to life. Nothing can exist without it.
"For in him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).

Light is energy made of particles and waves. It has no beginning or end.
"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End" (Revelation 22:13).
"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come" (Revelation 4:8).

The human eye cannot actually see light. We can only see its interaction with particles of matter in the air.
"The LORD is God, and he has made his light shine upon us" (Psalm 118:27).
"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" (Hebrews 11:1).
Though our eyes cannot behold Him, we can clearly see the ways He moves in our lives and in our world. (You can't see the wind--but you can see the effects of the wind...)

The colors that we can see (Roy G. Biv!) are only an infinitesimally small part of the entire spectrum of light. It's like the width of a human hair in one mile.
God has revealed only a miniscule portion of Himself to us--in the world and in His Word. He is eternal, sovereign, omnipotent, so vast that our finite minds cannot possibly know and understand all there is to know of Him. To quote Charles Spurgeon:

"As well might a gnat seek to drink in the ocean, as a finite creature to comprehend the Eternal God. A God whom we could understand would be no God. If we could grasp him he could not be infinite; if we could understand him, then were he not divine."

Yet one day--praise Him!--the scales will fall from our eyes and "we shall see him as he is" (1 John 3:2)! I believe that for all eternity, we'll constantly be discovering new things about God--He is too big for us to ever grasp fully. But when He comes again and reigns forever, the whole world will begin to see the full spectrum of His glorious grace. He came the first time in humility, but He will come again in GLORY!

May we "declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light"! (1 Peter 2:9).