Light

Yesterday I went on a 2nd grade field trip with Stefan's class to Impression 5 Science Museum. When we first arrived and the kids were released to visit the different hands-on stations, it was mass chaos: fifty eight-year-olds launching tennis balls, blowing giant bubbles, digging for dinosaur bones, and launching toy boats down a miniature version of the Soo Locks.

After an hour and a half of running back and forth trying to keep track of the three boys who had been assigned to me, it was finally time for the "light" workshop. Whew! At least for half an hour they would be contained in one place!

And then something amazing happened. The workshop teacher handed out these little cardboard-framed glasses to everyone - including the adults. They look silly, yes, but when you put them on, you can see every color present in the light spectrum. What appears to us as an ordinary lightbulb completely transforms into a kaleidoscope of brilliant colors when seen through those special lenses.

Then the teacher explained to the children that the human eye doesn't naturally see every color in the spectrum because if it did, we would see so much color that we wouldn't be able to distinguish the objects around us. So when we look at a lightbulb it just appears yellowish or white.

That got me thinking. First of all, how awesome is our God to have created such an amazing display of color! And how small are we, that our human eyes aren't even capable of seeing it? Yet, knowing our human inability to function in an environment where His glorious colors are on full display, He created us in such a way that our minds could interpret the world around us.

Second, I thought of the rainbow, and it became more precious to me. When you see a rainbow, it is because the water particles in the air act as prisms and diffuse the light of the sun, allowing the naked eye to see the colors in the light spectrum. What a precious gift from God - not only a blessed promise given to Noah after the flood, but a glimpse of His glory for the generations to come! From now on, whenever I see a rainbow in the sky, I will think of it as God showing me His amazing colors through nature, and I will remember how powerful He is!

I am grateful that I serve a God who is not only powerful enough to speak light into existence, but also creative enough to give it such brilliant colors!