Last week the Regional Team of which I am a part was on retreat for 24 hours. As a part of this process we were invited to share some thoughts on the theme of ‘Light’. I went for Psalm 36:9 – “For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.”
The phrase ‘in your light we see light’ fascinated me because from a physics perspective it does not make sense. To paraphrase CS Spurgeon, you don’t need a candle to see the sun. God’s light surely shines so brightly that we do not need any help seeing it. So what does it mean? My commentaries were distinctly unhelpful as they all seem to have struggled with interpreting the phrase and have therefore passed over it without comment (thus not living up to their names). So I have had to try to work out what I believe it means and this is what I have come up with – I think the sense of it is that it is when we look at things in God’s light we see things as he sees them: I think it may be about seeing things from God’s perspective. In the Bible ‘darkness’ signifies death, destruction, evil and misery while ‘light’ represents victory over those things – life, hope, clarity and joy. To see things in God’s light is to take a more positive outlook on life and see things from a new perspective.
When you look at a glass of water do you see it as half-full or half-empty? Or from God’s perspective do you see a glass and some water and seek to find someone who is thirsty to give it to? If that’s a bit esoteric here’s one I think we can all grasp – Jesus’ death on the cross appeared to be a tragic defeat by the forces of evil but from God’s perspective was the moment when the victory over death was won and that was reinforced by the resurrection. Or how about when we see a small, struggling, ageing church (ie the congregation) – does God see a group of people who are more likely to rely on him because they have nothing left and who are best situated to reach the other older people in the community with the good news?
As we are in the season of Advent and each week more candles are lit to mark our progress to the birth of Christ may we all be given the gift of (in)sight to see things and people from God’s perspective and look for the Kingdom at work, growing secretly and bursting forth in unexpected ways.
Be blessed, be a blessing
nukelearfishing 