Monday 13 June 2022

Psalm 29

Background

The island of Sark lies 80 miles south of England and was declared the first 'dark sky island' in the world. The award is in recognition of the exceptional blackness of the night sky, which makes for spectacular stargazing on the island. With no cars or street lighting, it is possible on a cloud-free night to see countless stars and hurtling meteors, visible against a backdrop of the Milky Way, which reaches across the sky from one horizon to the other.

Steve Owens, an astronomer, wrote, "If you go to a place like Sark, the Milky Way is a regular feature of the night sky. It always fills me with a sense of wonder. Each of those dots is a sun and there are 100 billion of them. It makes me appreciate how special Earth is. We've not found anywhere else in the cosmos that is a perfect haven for life."

Perhaps it was a similar experience of wonder that inspired the writer of Genesis to write the famous words, "God said, 'Let there be light' and there was light." Here at the beginning of the Bible, the close association between God and light is begun. In John’s Gospel it will be further developed as the Word (Logos) bringing "light for all people" (John 1:4), and later in John’s Gospel Jesus tells his disciples, "I am the light of the world" (John 8:12).

It would seem for the writers of Genesis and John that light draws them closer to the wonder and glory of God.

To Ponder:

• Have you ever experienced the lights going off and the need to light a candle? What comfort did the light give you?
•   Have you ever looked up at the night sky on a moonless night and experienced the vastness of the universe? How does that make you think?
•  If you are interested in the relationship between religious belief and science, you might like to visit the website of The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion. It has a wealth of resources from leading scientists around the globe exploring faith in our modern world.