Light!

National Botanical Gardens, Washington, DC  Copyright 2012:  singeronthesand

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth - 

all you see, all you don't see.  Earth was a soup of nothingness,.

a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness.  God spoke:

Light!

and light appeared!  God saw that the light was good

and separated light from darkness.

God named the light Day, He named the darkness Night.

It was evening, it was morning--

Day One.

Genesis 1:1-5

I have a dear friend who becomes very depressed, starting in the late autumn and carrying into the winter.  Why?  Her distress is brought on by Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) - a form of depression that strikes during the winter months.  At least a portion of the blame for this condition rests with her inability to get enough light - or enough of the right kind of light.  Part of her therapy is a daily light treatment utilizing a special lamp with a very bright light (10,000 lux) that mimics light from the sun.  During the grey, cold months, she sits with her lamp for 30 minutes or so a day, and it makes a tremendous difference in her well-being.

When God faced the shapeless darkness that was the area of earth, He knew that the first thing needed was light - piercing, bright - able to cut through the darkness and illuminate our world.  So He said it, and it was so.  The light was everywhere!  Where did it come from?  Certainly not the sun, moon or stars!  Those were not created until the fourth day.  No, that all-encompassing light must have had its source in God Himself.  

When Jesus came to this earth, He called himself the Light of the World, intent on breaking up the darkness of sin and death, revealing beams of grace, beauty and truth.  Jesus came to shine the light of His truth into the deep shadows of our world - confronting evil head on and, eventually, giving His life in order to banish all darkness forever.  

In the beginning was the Word; 

the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  

In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.

John 1:1,4,