Have you ever read something in the Bible that you’ve read dozens of times before but this go around you see something new?  I had this very experience this morning.

Anyone who has been around the Bible for any length of time is familiar with the creation story in Genesis 1.  What I realized today is that the first mention of light has nothing to do with the creation of the sun.   In verse 3, “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.”  The light spoken of here has to do with illumination and in many ways, signifies God’s illuminating presence.  We certainly know from other places in scripture that light can having nothing to do with darkness.  In verse 2, we learn that darkness covered the earth.  As the Light of the world, God brought forth His illuminating power to cover the darkness with the amazing compassion and mercy of His presence.

A new insight that gives me a renewed sense of the power of God’s illuminating presence in my own life.  Psalm 121:7 says, “…the Lord is your shade at your right hand.  The sun cannot harm you by day nor the moon by night.”  Oddly enough, the shade He provides stems from His powerful, radiant light that will never burn this fair skin of mine!