Light of the World

“Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.” (Genesis 1:3–5)

The world, as God made it, began in darkness. Then He commanded light for the world. God be thanked for light, that all the world can be enjoyed with our opened eyes.

Day begins with darkness, with “evening,” and morning light always follows. “Weeping may endure for a night,/But joy comes in the morning.” (Psalm 30:5) It is almost as if God recreates the world every day—the world is enshrouded in darkness, and then morning is commanded by God to take off the darkness and put on light for the day. We sleep every night in the darkness of shut eyes, and then God whispers us awake in the morning with new love. God be thanked for morning light, for new days, for new mercy from God every morning.

We are formed, created, in the darkness of our mothers’ wombs, where our world is covered in water. God commands the day of our birth, our eyes are opened, and light breaks in to reveal the new world as it truly is. God be thanked for birth-days, for our life in the light, for light to light up our lives.

Because of sin we are conceived in double-darkness; we are blind to the truth, wandering helplessly like pups with their eyes glued shut on the first day. But God the Word has been spoken into our lives, and Christ the Light of the world has come. Our eyes have been opened, and we have been born again into a world full of Light revealing all things as they truly are, as they were truly created to be. God be thanked for Jesus the Light of the World, for the eyes of faith, for the new creation.

Death is a darkness. Christ’s tomb was black as night. But light follows darkness, morning follows the night. Christ the Light of the World has risen from the dead, and eternal daylight—and laughter and love and an infinite number of newnesses—follows the brief darkness we are called on to endure. God be thanked for our everlasting life of light in Christ, for new day dawning, for hope spelled out in the creation of light.

“Lord God, we thank You this day for days filled with light, for a world filled with wonder, and for eyes to let it all in. Continually grant us the light of Christ, that we might see His glory and His goodness, the truth of His Word, the truth of the world in which we live, the truth about ourselves. You are the Light of the World! Wake us up, and shine one us! Grant us life through the light of Christ our Risen Savior, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”