Light Spectrum

Though we’re seldom aware of it in theoretical terms, various parts of the light spectrum play in our daily lives. By visible light we enjoy the colors of nature. Microwaves cook our food, radio waves bring us music, X-rays improve diagnosis. We may put on sunscreen to avoid ultraviolet light, sit in a sauna heated by infrared, or worry about Gamma-rays from nuclear warfare.

The scripture says, “God is light.”

Parts of the light spectrum illustrate God as we experience Him. The interspersed quotes come from Psalm 139:

• Light is everywhere.

Where can I go from Your Spirit?
         Or where can I flee from Your presence?
 If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
         If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
 If I take the wings of the morning,
         And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
Even there Your hand shall lead me,
         And Your right hand shall hold me.

• Visible light reveals both the beautiful and the hideous to the eye.

You know my sitting down and my rising up;
      You comprehend my path and my lying down,
         And are acquainted with all my ways.

• Radio waves go large distances unhindered, unlike sound waves which need matter to travel.

   You understand my thought afar off.
 For there is not a word on my tongue,
         But behold, O LORD, You know it altogether.

• Ultraviolet kills deadly organisms. Gamma-rays perform amazing destruction.

Oh, that You would slay the wicked, O God!
For they speak against You wickedly;
         Your enemies take Your name in vain.

• Infrared, given off by our skin, makes us visible with night vision glasses.

If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,”
         Even the night shall be light about me;
Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,
         But the night shines as the day;
         The darkness and the light are both alike to You.

• X-rays reveal the inward parts.

My frame was not hidden from You,
         When I was made in secret,
         And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
         And in Your book they all were written,
         The days fashioned for me,
         When as yet there were none of them.

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
         Try me, and know my anxieties;
 And see if there is any wicked way in me,
         And lead me in the way everlasting.

The title above links to the beautiful hymn, Eternal Light, Eternal Light.