CHRISTIAN VIEWPOINT: What aspects of the spectrum of knowing are some of us yet to explore?
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Lorna and I have been watching two dramas on the theme of ‘light’.
One was the new movie, Journey to Bethlehem – a re-telling of the story of the birth of Jesus, ‘light of the world’, told in a contemporary idiom with song and dance, a feisty Mary, and humour in the shape of three wise men and a little creative license.
Opposition to the light comes from the cruel, troubled King Herod who manically proclaims ‘Mine is the kingdom! Mine is the power! Mine is the glory forever more!’
The other drama, on Netflix, is All the Light We Cannot See, set chiefly in St Malo in France towards the end of World War II. A young German soldier and a blind French teenage girl are sustained by the wisdom both heard as children listening to late-night radio broadcasts by a man calling himself ‘the professor’.
Here, the light of common humanity is opposed by Adolf Hitler, a latter-day Herod who makes almost an entire nation goosestep to the rhythm of his morally-corrupt agenda,
Light and darkness are in conflict in our day too. And before we smugly condemn other people, we recognise that the line between good and evil runs through our own hearts. There is in each one of us something of Herod and Hitler.
The baby Jesus reveals the extent of God’s love for us. This Jesus sets free all who welcome him. He comes not to the proud, but to those who show the spirit of humility evident in Mary’s prayer in Journey to Bethlehem: “You said ‘Do not fear’, so Lord, if you are here, help me have the faith you have in me.”
‘The professor’ told his listeners that light survives. Darkness, on the other hand ‘lasts not one second when you turn on the light’. Darkness is not perpetual. Hope remains, for when light shines, darkness disappears.
The wise men in the movie sing of Jesus ‘Thine be the kingdom! Thine be the power! Thine be the glory forever!’ The kingdom of light will endure.
Anthony Doerr who wrote the novel on which the drama All the Light We Cannot See is based was asked what the title means. He explains that the electromagnetic spectrum extends far beyond visible light, and includes radio waves, and he adds: “We spend too much time focused on only a small slice of the spectrum of possibility.”
I like that! It reminds me that there are means of perception we sometimes ignore – spiritual enlightenment, for example. What aspects of the spectrum of knowing have I yet to explore?
There is still time to take in our minds the journey to Bethlehem, and see for ourselves.
