day 2 - Light

I was out working on Saturday and when I came home there were twinkly Christmas lights in the front window.   Josh had put up the tree.  Lisburn, our nearest town, has spent £100,000 this year on a light show spectcular which covers the whole of the town center - light canopies and tunnels, angel wings and huge illuminated baubles.   Its most impressive.


Since I started painting a few years ago I am aware that these days I pay much more attention to light.  Most days when I am out driving Im looking at the sky and noticing the different way the light catches clouds, or makes shadows on the road, or threatens a storm on the horizon.  I see scenes Id like to paint, but know that no artist could ever really capture the colours and hints of hues that the light casts.  Light is an amazing thing.

In the beginning God said '  let there be light'

Jesus is the light of the world. ( John 8 :12)  His life is light.  What does that even mean???



I think perhaps the closest I have come to understanding it was when I read something someone wrote about those first words that God spoke....  Let there be.   According to the writer. as God spoke His DNA was propelled into the nothingness.  The very being of God, His life breath , His creative power, came forth and began creating.  It is still creating.  The DNA of God which was released when He said ' Let'  is still out there doing its thing.  The life force which is God, and is therefore Jesus, is bringing all things into being, sustaining all things and holding all things together. This life force seems to be so dynamic that it displays the properties of light, electiricty, nuclear power, dynamite, fire....

The Hebrew for ' Let there be light'  is Yhi or wayhi or. 

aor is used in Scripture for heat (Isaiah 44:16), fire (Isaiah 31:9; Ezekiel 5:2), the sun (Job 31:26), lightning (Job 37:3)

Interestingly Jesus is described by those who have seen Him in heaven in terms of light, fire, gold

.... and among the lampstands was One like the Son of Man, dressed in a long robe, with a golden sash around His chest. 14The hair of His head was white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes were like a blazing fire. 15His feet were like polished bronze refined in a furnace, and His voice was like the roar of many waters.… Revelation 1

Daniel 10:6
His body was like beryl, his face like the brilliance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of polished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude

John and Daniel were trying to decribe something for which they had no words.  The best they could do was compare the person of Jesus to fire and lightning and gold.   But one supposes that these words dont really come close to being able to describe what He is really like.

This explosive, beautiful, powerful life-giving force came into the world in the body of a tiny helpless baby.  He folded Himself into a womb and restricted Himself to the life of a man so that He could share His very nature with you and with me.   That same power lives in us.  We are now the light of the world, a city on a hill.  We are to let our light so shine before men....

Lord,  You are the light of the world, the light of my world, and your life in me illuminates every dark thing and shows me the way.  I so want your light in me to be visible to those around me.  Let me shine with the tiniest fraction of your glory so that the world will know that You are who You say You are.  Thank you that those who walked in darkness have seen Your light and can now live by it.  As we gaze on the twinkling lights of Chrsitmas remind us of your power to overcome darkness and bring life, hope and joy.