Lights, Camera, Action!

Arise, shine;
For your light has come!
And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.
For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,
And deep darkness the people;
But the Lord will rise over you,
And His glory will be seen upon you.
Isaiah 60:1-2

That’s what life in God is about – lights, camera, action! It’s about seeing and doing, apprehending and applying, knowing and being, becoming and displaying. The very first thing God created was light because the thing is we cannot see unless there is light. The next order of the day is to figure out what we are seeing by viewing life through the lens of Truth. Then once we start getting everything all sorted out, we need to step out and be light and help others see God by being like Him. It’s all pretty crystal.

Let there be light! God created the universe by speaking. He created light with faith-filled declarations that brought the dawning day into being. So it is easy to make the link when we see the psalmist thankfully exclaim: your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. Jesus himself said the He was the light of the world and the word of God. By walking in friendship with God, we light our way with the truth of what God says as true understanding dawns. It is a place where spiritual light bulbs get lit up every time He speaks as our lamp is plugged into His current of communication. It is a powerful point of connection when God meets man.

Let there be stars! God, you might remember, promised Abraham that his descendants would be like the stars of the sky. God created the moon, the sun and stars to govern the day and night. Those little twinkling dots shimmer the night like gold dust sparkling an endless spread of black silk. Our light is to bring the glow of divine wisdom and the brilliance of God’s nature to all. In God’s perfect wisdom, He allowed darkness to remain as a backdrop and point of contrast in a vast panorama of human experience. In other words, crisis and sorrow give stars an opportunity to shine, to spotlight the superior radiance of God’s ways. We shine when we bring sunshine to our neighbours, when we speak of God in glowing terms, when we burst into glorious worship, when we bejewel our nature with His goodness.

What do you see! To coin from Shakespeare: to see or not to see; that is the question. Funny how we can all see the same thing in different ways, especially if we are viewing it from varied vantage points. No wonder then that sight or the lack thereof is a major biblical theme. When commissioning Jeremiah the prophet, God asked him, “What do you see?” because God wanted to test his prophetic-eye prescription. The lens of personal opinion is often blind or partially blind. The lens of godly insight is always 20/20 on target. This may come through prayer or worship or simply chatting with a friend, and it may come in degrees to teach us not to be hasty with our opinions. Like a trained eye specialist, God, through a number of circumstances and experiences, can shift around lenses to ask us, “Are you seeing now? … what do you see? … Do you see what I’m up to now? … What do you see?”

Can you see me? God created light so that we could see, and ultimately what God wants us to see is Him. God has been scripting human history and human lives over thousands of years, much of which is scripted in the Word of God. The Bible is like a photo book of life from every possible angle; like a photographer’s self-portrait portfolio captured with a diverse range of lenses. The images are vivid and captivating and tell gripping stories. This is because God wants us to gaze into them to find Him and so find ourselves; to peer into the mirror of the Word to discover the truth of who we are. Sometimes, when we walk through sorrow and distress, we feel we are losing everything – security, joy, friends, family, hope, ourselves. Not far from this point, however, is the hope of sight. For we become what we behold. Like Jacob when he increased his flocks by setting them before special palm branches in mating season, sight has procreative potential – to produce in me what I see in God.

Light is a candid camera. Light is not simply an antidote to darkness. It far surpasses the black of night. Light is dawning day. Light is knowledge and the lens of perspective. Light is godly character and the telescope of divine wisdom. Light is joy and hope reflecting rainbows in my wine crystal. Light is knowing, seeing, being like God.