The Story of Light

The Story of Light

During our 2016 event, Story & Soul Team member Caroline Saunders shared the metanarrative of scripture using the image of light. An excerpt is below, but you can read the story in full by clicking here.

“God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. And God saw that the light was good.’” From the third verse in the Bible, light and goodness intersect. Later in the Gospel of John, we learn that not only did God create literal light, but that He himself is symbolically light—that by which we see all things. 

We were created to be in this light, to bask in it, to live our lives in its warmth. To string it up along our Christmas trees, to reflect on its illumination and realize that God is every bit as good as He claims to be. Light reminds us that he’s good, that he provides, that he’s powerful. After all, he just spoke, and there it was—light. Is there anything more powerful than that?

But as with any story, that’s only the beginning. Darkness crept in, the way it always creeps in: When we doubt God’s light-creating words. We see it first in the Garden of Eden: Satan whispers to Eve, “Did God really say…” Eve wondered—did God really mean what he said? Is God holding out on me? Is God really good?

Adam and Eve sinned, and the sin changed everything. Instead of basking in light, sin made them want to hide: “They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God” (Genesis 3:8). And so it started: hiding, shame, separation. We were created to be with him, to live in his light, but the sin divides things that are meant to be together. Cast out of the garden, Adam and Eve found themselves away from the one true light, plunged into darkness…