April 5, 2018
1 John 1:5-7…“This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.” vs. 5
Often we use the word “God” with little thought to its meaning. For some, it’s simply an expletive or an interjection, an expression of surprise or astonishment. Others attach anthropomorphic images and imagine an exalted human-like being who lives in heaven or someplace “up there.” Their God has moods and emotions, enormous power, and can be contacted through prayer. For most of us, God is more nuanced and mysterious–pretty much beyond human understanding. We believe that aspects of God have been revealed in Jesus, and that we can get some notions of God’s power by looking at the creation. John describes God as light and it’s an apt metaphor. We’re familiar with light but even the best of us have a hard time understanding exactly what it is. Light greets us in the morning, is with us through the day, and then disappears at night…but John isn’t talking about that kind of light. For him, it has no direct connection with the sun and in fact, existed before there even was a sun, moon, or stars. It stands in contrast to darkness and apart from creation and has unfathomable power and energy–enough to generate the “Big Bang” and bring all things into existence. Consequently, most of the ways in which we describe God are ultimately inadequate, which as it should be. It’s enough to say that God is light and let it go at that!
Thought for the Day: What’s my favorite way to describe God?
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