You may be familiar with the phrase “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16). The apostle John used another phrase like this as he painted a word-picture about God: “God is light” (1 John 1:5).
There’s so much we can learn about God by thinking about what light is, and what light does. Here’s a list that some summer workers and I came up with:
Roles of Light
- Lets us see
- Helps us not get hurt
- Helps us find our way
- Lets us transfer knowledge (writing, facial expressions, etc.)
- Makes beauty possible
- Gives heat
- Lets plants grow
- Makes vitamin D possible
- Heals (light therapy)
- Sterilizes
- Evaporates water (ironically, the sun causes rain)
- Can work for us
- Solar power
- Information transfer (fiber optics, optical hard drives, etc.)
- Laser cutters
- Gives scientists endless study
Lessons from Light
- Weeds crowd light from good plants, stunting their growth. Similarly, bad habits stunt our personal growth.
- It’s hard to sleep when you see the light. (Matthew 25:5; Ephesians 5:14)
- Light sticks need to be broken to give light. Likewise, we need to be broken so God can shine through us. (Mathew 21:44)
- Light shows us the way. (Psalm 119:105)
- Plants reach for the light; we need to seek the Light.
- Light reveals our problems – and the solution to our problems. (John 3;17-21)
- Light is the only thing that can get rid of darkness! (Romans 12:20,21)
- Scientists can understand much about light – but can’t discover what it really is. The more we learn about God, the more we realize that we don’t comprehend about Him.
- Exposure to light too fast is blinding: sharing too much about God too fast is overwhelming.
More about Light
There are so many more lessons we can learn about God from light. Here are a couple that I have found especially meaningful, and that I plan to write about in the future:
- Light adds, while pigments subtract. You can make similar colours with pigments as you can with light. Likewise, the Devil has good-looking counterfeits (pigments) for everything good that God gives (light). Adding more colours of light increases the brightness. Adding more pigments increases the darkness.
- Most of the light plants use is from the ends of the light spectrum (blue light and red light). Most plants reflect back the green light from the middle of the spectrum, since they don’t need it. Some plants, such as purple basil, have dark leaves. These leaves absorb even the light that they don’t need. When picked, purple basil withers much faster than green basil, because the light it should be reflecting heats it up. Likewise, hoarding the blessings we receive will harm us, and actually make more vulnerable.
- The hidden beauty of sunlight goes unnoticed until rain separates the light into a rainbow. Trials, like rain, reveal more of the beauty of God’s character than we could otherwise see.