Roblog

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.–Genesis 1:1-4

God spoke—and where there was once nothing there was at once the heavens and the earth. It is must not escape our attention that the first thing God did with his creation as he began to form it was shine upon it with the light of his glory: “Let there be light.” This is not the light of the sun or stars—those were yet to be created. The Scripture tells us that God is light; not the light of luminescence, that is, the physical shining by which we see the physical things in our world, but the light by which we understand, the light that gives meaning to our world. God is with us by the light of his presence in his world.

It is God’s essence to shine his light, so that, even when sin came crashing into creation, his mercy shined a promise of redemption to those responsible for that sin. That shining promise to Adam, Eve, Noah, Abraham—to all who would believe its unfolding glory—gave hope that the darkness could not overcome the light. It could not because he who is the light stepped into his creation as himself a creature. No wonder, then, he would make the promise that “the Sun of Righteousness would rise with healing in his wings”! In his becoming flesh and bone, the light of life who shines into the world, dawns.