The wonder of light

Here’s a thought experiment. Suppose I set out to drive my Honda CRV to the sun. Suppose I took that little-used I-10 Sun exit (not to be confused with Casino del Sol), stomped on the gas until I got up to about 100 mph, donned my darkest Oakley shades, set my GPS for the center of that yellow orb—when would I get there?

No stops for gas, no stops for Buc-ee’s Beaver Nuggets, just go-go-go. When? I would pull in to the Sol Visitor’s Center for a bathroom break 106 years from now. 106 years!

A photon—the invisible particles that make light do its light thing—will make the same trip in 8 minutes, 20 seconds. It took longer for me to come up with these first three paragraphs than that. Light books! It moves at, you guessed it, light-speed, which is the universe’s absolute speed limit.

Flip the light switch in the darkest corner of your home and measure how quickly the scene turns from obscurity to clarity. Faster than a smile. Faster than a look of sympathetic understanding. Faster than a nod at a stranger and a quiet “hello.”

Another thing about light: it’s indefatigable. The most distant star yet detected and imaged by the James Webb Space Telescope is in a galaxy called the Sunrise Arc. That star is Earendel, and the light we can observe from this one star has been streaking towards us like a flaming arrow—not slowing or taking a break—for the past 12.9 billion years, all without fading, each photon just as energetic and full of light-stuff as when it was first launched into space from the blazing surface of that sun.

Light does its light-thing in the briefest speck of an instant, and its illumination is not dimmed by age or weariness or disappointment or hardship.

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” —John 8:12 (NIV)

For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true. —Ephesians 5:8-9 (NLT)

In the first quote, we hear Jesus compare himself to the way light reveals and informs, the way it makes it possible to see what is real and what isn’t, what’s good and what is garbage. This Jesus-light is life-affirming, life-sustaining, life-transforming.

In the second quote, we hear Paul connect the transformative, inner light of God’s presence to the externals of how we live, how we think, what we value, what we believe.

The promise here is that this “light” of Christ will change us and alter the way we engage with society. This light of Christ is good stuff, even when we are not at all good, and produces good fruit in us that becomes a blessing to others.

This light of Christ is inexhaustible, fueled by the Spirit of God.

The light of Christ works in ways that are beyond our understanding, beyond our control, that may be as unremarkable as a smile or a kind word or a prolonged and kind gaze that says, “I see you” to someone who feels unseen. Or, it may lead us into a commitment to walk with someone for a billion miles over a trillion light-years of life’s joys and travails.

The light of Christ has the power to clean, renew, and transform us, as well as our families, our neighbors, our society.

Such is light. It strips away darkness. It illuminates without fear. It persists despite exhaustion. It shines with love, hope, mercy, forbearance, because it is energized by the power and authority of the God who first said: Let there be light.

God, help us live as people of this light.

Photo credit: NASA