Light Is A Marvelous Thing
by Nate Benard, CMDA Atlanta Area Director
Without light, we would not have life. Plants need light to grow and animals need plants to eat. Pretty simple. God gave us the Sun by day to provide light and warmth and the Moon by night to reflect the light of the Sun to help us see at night.
Brief History of Light
The hours of daylight were not sufficient. People would work all day and the light of the Moon was not enough. People tried to create light with fire. First, they would burn wood or whatever they could find. Later they found that animal fat would burn slowly. In Babylon around 4500 BC, oil lamps were used. A day’s wage would buy about 10 minutes of light for a small room! This may have led to the first fast food.
Around 3000 BC candles made from animal fat began to be used. The need for animal fat for lighting was destroying the whale population thousands of years later.
Life after dark did not exist until about 1850 when kerosene was discovered. Kerosene burned brighter. It was cleaner. It was a lot cheaper. Now, a day’s wage could purchase about 5 hours of light instead of 10 minutes.
Thomas Edison labored for years unsuccessfully to develop an electric light. Once asked if he was discouraged by his failure, he replied,
“I have not failed. I have found 10,000 ways it won’t work.”
By the late 1800’s we had the first electric light thanks to the determination of Thomas Edison. Today, a day’s wages would purchase about 20,000 hours of light! Where once people searched for wood to burn, we now enter a room and clap our hands or say, “Hey Google. Turn on the lights.” And Voilà! There is light!
Light was needed to overcome darkness to increase productivity in life. Now many businesses now operate 24 hours a day.
Light also gets rid of or prevents certain things. For example, mold and mildew are not fond of light. I have never heard of someone turning on a light in a dark kitchen to find a bunch of roaches running out into the light. On the contrary, they scatter in search of a dark place. Why is that? Is it because they lack pigmentation and the light hurts their exterior? Is it because the light hurts their eyes? No. It is because they have been exposed.
In John 8:12 Jesus said,
“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Jesus overcomes darkness as well!
Later in John, Jesus expounds on this visual:
“And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, for fear his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God” (3:19-21).
Just as roaches run from physical light for fear of being exposed, sinners tend to run from Jesus, the Light of the World, for fear of being exposed.
John continues in 1 John:
“… God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” (5:5-7)
Look at this part of these verses.
If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
Sadly, this is what many of us do to an extent.
Many of us attend church regularly, give money to the church, volunteer at church, etc. All of which are fantastic! Yet, we are addicted to a life of sinful pleasures at the same time. We tend to keep our sins in the dark. We try to hide our sins from others and even God; all while appearing to walk in the light.
Why do we try to hide our sins from others? Why do we try to hide our sins from an all-knowing God? I imagine some of it may have to do with shame and guilt. I think some of it has to do with not wanting to abandon the sin. We truly desire to be a Christian, but we still enjoy being a sinner.
We have to give these sinful desires to God. As long as we are sold out to sin, we are robbing Christ, our families and our friends of our full commitment.
Paul writes in Colossians 1:13-14:
He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son [The Light], in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Live Delivered!
May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.
