Let all that I am praise the Lord. O Lord my God, how great you are! You are robed with honor and majesty. You are dressed in a robe of light. Psalm 104: 1-2

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The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone (John 1:4 NLT).

             Light is essential to life. After several gloomy, overcast days, this morning's sunlight not only gave me a much-needed dose of vitamin D, it also lifted my spirits. The cat stretched out in the patch of sunlight on the carpet of my study also seems happy to see the sun, as do the Johnny-jump-ups in their rusty blue bucket by the front steps.

            As we know from fourth grade science class, plants need light to photosynthesize. In this way plants "feed" on light as well as on water and nutrients in the soil. Plants are also phototropic, meaning they turn (tropos) toward light (photos). In sunflowers, with their platter-sized heads, this is especially easy to see. Sunlight is so important to my own sense of well-being, I sometimes wonder if I'm part sunflower.

 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it (John 1:5).

             When the respected Jewish religious leader, Nicodemus, went to talk to Jesus, he went after dark. As a Pharisee, it probably wouldn't have gone well for Nicodemus to be seen with Jesus in the bright light of day, and besides, Nicodemus had things to say to Jesus that he wanted to say privately. "Rabbi, we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you," (John 3:1) is a statement that probably wouldn't have gone over so well with other Jewish religious leaders in the temple in the broad light of day. What was Jesus' response to Nicodemus' affirmation of him?

 "I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God" (John 3:3).

             Huh? "Born again?" What a strange response to Nicodemus' affirmation! And what does it have to do with anything? Nicodemus was bewildered.

 "What do you mean?" exclaimed Nicodemus. "How can an old man go back into his mother's womb and be born again?" (John 3:4)

            When a baby is born, he or she leaves the dark, cramped and cramping womb, and enters into a world of light. So it is when people are born again. We leave behind the dark, constricting world of self-centered unbelief, and enter into the freedom and light of belief, of new life. Just as my cat basks in warm sunlight, so we bask in the light of Christ. As believers, we turn our faces toward Him like sunflowers in summer or Johnny-jump-ups in spring.

            We feed on the true light that is Christ.

            If you've been a believer for a long time, perhaps these thoughts seem elementary, too much like fourth grade. If that's the case, I urge you to read a refresher on photosynthesis with these and the many other biblical references about light in mind. Photosynthesis is a complex biological process that's representative of the mind of God and His miraculous, light-filled redemptive plan for humankind.

            So read about photosynthesis or just have a conversation with a fourth-grader. I predict that either will shed new light on the biblical passages about Jesus, the Light of the world.

Daye Phillippo

May 2016