Light is used throughout the Bible as a metaphor for God. It is not a theme that ever gets considered in much detail, but it is always there, from the first chapter of Genesis where light is the beginning of creation, to the penultimate chapter of Revelation where heaven does not need sun or moon for light, because God himself is light. As our nights get longer and gloomy twilight invades our daily routines, this is an excellent time of year for us to consider the problems of darkness and the benefits of light.

The glory of a metaphor, much like a parable, is that it sets our imaginations free and engages our emotions. This is not a month for facts and definitions. Light itself is a gloriously undefinable thing. (Over the past century, scientists have come to scratch their heads harder and harder, the more they have attempted to unravel its mysteries. Perhaps God knew that well enough when he presented himself to us as ‘Light’. Light is undefinable, yet it is the source of all life and the foundation of all creation. Light presents science with one of this universe’s true constants, yet it also presents science with unresolveable paradoxes.)

Darkness does not affect us in the same way that it affected Jesus and his contemporaries. For them, when the sun went down, work stopped - ready or not. After that, all they had was a humble oil lamp to light their way, and oil had to be paid for. Their lives were tightly governed by the natural pattern of light and darkness, because they did not have the power to create artificial daytime that we have. Of course, it may be the case that though they were more affected by darkness than we are, that they were used to it in a way that we are not. I imagine that both eras have had a fear of darkness, but that their fears were subtly different to ours.

Abundant artificial light is a relatively recent phenomenon. So it is no surprise that images of light and darkness are common in our language, art and literature. We commonly refer to bad things as being ‘dark’, and to good discoveries as being ‘illuminating’. These metaphors in our language come from the same experiences as the Biblical metaphors of light and darkness.