Light is His (Lent 12, 2017)

Light is His.  It belongs to God.  It’s been that way since the beginning of time.

Psalm 104:1 Praise the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty. 2 He wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent 3 and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters. He makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind…19 The moon marks off the seasons, and the sun knows when to go down. 20 You bring darkness, it becomes night, and all the beasts of the forest prowl. 21 The lions roar for their prey and seek their food from God. 22 The sun rises, and they steal away; they return and lie down in their dens. 23 Then man goes out to his work, to his labor until evening.

What a beautiful poetic description of God as Creator!  The psalmist praises God saying “He wraps Himself in light.” All the lights of the heavens and even the wind and clouds obey His command.  They serve Him.  Light is His.  Yet He sends darkness in the rhythm of life… so that when the sun also rises, mankind knows to work while it is daylight.

Have you ever thought about light having God as Creator just as much as any animal or human?  His fingerprints are on every beam of light.  Every light wave, every particle bears His signature as its maker.  There is nothing like it!  It bears His signature, yet as unique as light is, it does not bear His seal of ownership in the same way that believers in Christ have with the Holy Spirit.

What makes God’s signature as Creator different from His seal of ownership as Savior?

Ever since the fall of man, all of creation groans because of the sin of mankind.  But only man can receive the Holy Spirit.  Someday in heaven, believers in Jesus Christ will see God face-to-face.  Our eyes will be equipped in perfection to absorb the full intensity of God’s light, the light that is His!  Our hearts and minds will be fully cleansed by the indwelling Holy Spirit to grow in knowledge perfectly and to see God in all His glory.

For now, the full intensity of God’s light, the fullness of His glory, cannot be seen directly or it would kill us.  God’s Word, however, will lead us to greater spiritual sight until the day we are perfected in Christ.

Fun Fact of Light:  Don’t look at the sun’s light directly.  Why?  According to Gizmodo,  

The moment you begin looking at the sun, you start to develop a sunburn on your eyeball. Of the three types of light that the sun produces—visible, infrared, and ultraviolet—UV is the most damaging to structures within the eye, especially when reflected off sand, snow or water. The cells of the cornea, the transparent outer layer of the eye, will blister and crack when overexposed to UV light. It’s a lot like a normal sunburn… Luckily, the effect is almost always temporary, dissipating within 36 hours, and can be prevented by wearing UV-rated eye wear.

With enough damage to the retina, though, staring at the sun can leave you partially blind. Prolonged UV exposure can damage the macula…[and] cause macular degeneration, eventually resulting in permanent blindness in the center of your field of vision. Basically, that black dot you see after a photo flash would just never go away.

For further thought:

In Exodus 33:15-23, Moses wants to see God’s glory and God says, 20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”

How does God resolve the situation in verses 21-23?