Light

Thinking about the beautiful things that light creates, is there anything as beautiful as light itself?   It is the source of all visible beauty.  It is light itself which creeps quietly and imperceptibly out of the night, slowly, mysteriously, revealing shapes and adding colour drop by drop.  It is light, always new, that streaks the dawn sky with pink, rose, turquoise and beige or spreads a gentle grey dome over our heads.  Is light ever as marvellous as on a showery day? Then it plays with the wind to create a tumble of black and grey clouds chasing each other across the sky, or suddenly breaks out in radiantly brilliant whites or splashes of spectacular blue.  Think of a world without red or yellow and what would we do without green?   Imagine a world without shadows, shades, sunsets, butterflies wings, brown eyes, autumn leaves.  Feel the magic of candle light, lamp light, moon light, fire light, light dancing on rivers, light gliding over lakes at evening, light shimmering in a heat haze on a hot day.  What more mysterious than the light that shines out of human eyes, communicating love, grief, desire, a thousand emotions, or the light that transfigures a face when happiness, awareness, understanding, welcome, humour or peace wells up from the heart?  No wonder light has become a symbol for so many human moods and feelings.  Indeed, Light is a name we give to the Creator and to Jesus Himself.

O Light Invisible we praise Thee!

Too bright for mortal vision,

O Greater Light, we praise Thee for the less.

The eastern light our spires touch at morning,

The light that slants upon our western doors at evening,

The twilight over stagnant pools at bat light

Moon light and star light, owl and moth light

Glow-worm glow light on a grass blade

Light Invisible, we worship Thee.  (T.S. Eliot)

Lead, Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom,

Lead thou me on.

The night is dark and I am far from home

Lead thou me on.

Keep thou my feet, I do not ask to see

The distant scene, one-step enough for me.

So long thy power hath bless me, sure it still

Will lead me on.

O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent

Till the night is gone.

And with the dawn, those Angel faces smile,

Which I have loved long since  and  lost  awhile         

(J.H. Newman)

 Suggestion:

• Switch off the electric light and watch the dawn break or the evening fall.
• Notice the colour and shades in vegetables, fruit, plants, feathers, animal fur or human hair.
• Watch the light of emotion playing across a child’s face.
• Visit an art gallery or contemplate a picture at home.

• How Paul recovered his sight  (Acts 9: 1 – 22) or how Jesus brought the light of faith to the man born blind (John 9: 1- 41)
• Thank God for the gift of eyes, the light of intelligence, the evolution of human consciousness, the insight of faith.