There’s Nothing Simple About Light

Who knew something seemingly simple could be so overwhelmingly complex?

Great scientific minds have debated the whats, hows, and why-fors of light for centuries, so I don’t feel too badly that a lot of light science is way over my head.

I like what David said in Psalm 131: “LORD, my heart is not proud; my eyes are not haughty. I don’t concern myself with matters too great or too awesome for me to grasp” (Psalm 131:1 NLT).

I’ll keep to the aspects of light I can wrap my head around, and leave the rest to greater minds than mine!

I am writing through the days of Creation this year, giving two months to each Day of Creation. I’ll be writing about some facet or other of light through the months of January and February.

Here’s the Day one recap:

The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day” and the darkness “night.”

And evening passed and morning came, marking the first day.

Genesis 1:2-5

Boom. God said, and there was. Simple, right? I mean, if our eyes are working at all, we can see differences between light and dark, and the shades in between. It seems that light just is to one degree or another, or it isn’t.

But then we learn there’s so much more to it. Particles, waves and wavelengths, frequencies, electromagnetic radiation, energy levels, photons, colors, reflection, refraction, diffraction, and interference are all different pieces to the puzzle of light.

We weren’t there to see it yet, but all of those puzzle pieces were in play on the first day. How long did it take before humans first began trying to understand the perplexity of how light works?

The majority of what we understand about light has come from hypothesizing and experimenting over the last three hundred years. That’s just a grain in the hourglass of the sands of time, and we still don’t fully comprehend what light is and how exactly it behaves. There are still more facets to figure out!

This takes me back once again to 1 John 1:5, which says, “This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.”

Just as it has taken centuries to begin diving into the realities of light science, so it takes more than a lifetime to begin to truly know God. No matter how long we follow him and pursue his presence, there will always be more to discover of his ways and his character!

The more we trust him with our lives, the more we learn he is trustworthy.

The more we lean on him in our weakness, the more we learn his strength is dependable.

The more we bring him our sorrows, the more we know him as our comforter.

The more we give him our heavy burdens, the lighter his yoke feels.

The more we fail and turn back to him, the more we learn he is faithful in spite of our faithlessness.

The more we bring him our needs, the more we see him as our provider.

The more we come to him for wisdom, the more we know him as our counselor.

Don’t ever think you’ve got the full and complete picture of God. There will always be more of him to discover, and the treasure is worth the effort required!

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As a thank you for reading, I’m sharing an absolutely unrelated printable with you. I suppose it could be related in that without light, there would be nothing to make soup with!! This is a weekly checklist to help you celebrate National Soup Month. Let me know in the comments what soup you’ll be enjoying!