Tuesday, May 17, 2011

The Purpose of Light


        Have you ever noticed that light is not just a single color—although it can be. Light can just be white, or it can have multiple colors: Purple, Blue, Cyan, Green, Yellow, Orange, and Red. Light has seven colors. Scientists called these colors: The Light Spectrum. You can get multiple combinations from just those seven colors. You can get colors like Navy Blue, Lavender, Tan, and Zinnia Gold (don’t ask which colors make that one). When all seven are all together, you receive white light to see things, but you need all of them together in order to receive the white color. Even if one color is missing, you get a completely different color, and light would not be white and everything would be more difficult to see. Confused yet?

         Well, What I am saying is this: light was created for purpose. God created light, and is, Himself, light. What do I mean by this? It took me a while to understand it myself. But, God wanted me to know about why He created light, and how He, in Himself, is light. Jesus said: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12). He was telling that to the average, everyday, poor/middle -class people of His day. What did He mean by it? Well, it’s a reference back to creation. “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was[a] on the face of the deep.” (Genesis 1:2), or in the original Hebrew, the earth was uninhabitable and nothing: without purpose and without worth.

Notice that darkness covers the earth when it has no purpose and worth. In Genesis 1:3-5, “God said: “Let there be light”, and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.” I never quite understood light in the biblical since until God opened my eyes to the understanding of it. God knew that the earth was uninhabitable and worthless, and He first created light. Why? He needed to create purpose for the earth first. He created light in order to begin the process of making the earth habitable. God created purpose, and called the light Day, and then gave value to darkness by separating it from light and giving it a name: Night.

        So, God created light to show that He can create purpose. Light has so many benefits that I will have to wait for another blog to convey them all, but it is what it is. So, what did Jesus mean when He said: “I am the Light of the world”? He meant that He is the creator of purpose, and that He is God who created light in order to begin the process of making the world habitable. If you follow Him, You will not be without purpose—that is what Jesus Christ is saying.