I don't know why but I've been stuck on light in my personal reflection time.
Today I went back to the source.
Darkness existed before light. Darkness wasn't created; light was. Light
came from God in order to remove darkness. As I thought on this today, my
mind wandered to an old story of a student and professor. Emails have falsely
reported the student to be Albert Einstein. It's not. I don't even know if
the story is true but the point made in it is absolute true. I hope you enjoy
the story.
A University professor at a well known institution of higher learning challenged
his students with this question. "Did God create everything that exists?"
A student bravely replied, "Yes he did!"
"God created everything?" The professor asked.
"Yes sir, he certainly did," the student replied.
The professor answered, "If God created everything; then God created evil.
And, since evil exists, and according to the principle that our works define
who we are, then we can assume God is evil."
The student became quiet and did not respond to the professor's hypothetical
definition.. The professor, quite pleased with himself, boasted to the students
that he had proven once more that the Christian faith was a myth.
Another student raised his hand and said, "May I ask you a question, professor?"
"Of course", replied the professor.
The student stood up and asked, "Professor, does cold exist?"
"What kind of question is this? Of course it exists. Have you never been
cold?"
The other students snickered at the young man's question. The young man replied,
"In fact sir, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what
we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat. Everybody or object is
susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes
a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-460 F) is the total
absence of heat; and all matter becomes inert and incapable of reaction at
that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe
how we feel if we have no heat."
The student continued, "Professor, does darkness exist?"
The professor responded, "Of course it does."
The student replied, "Once again you are wrong sir, darkness does not exist
either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study,
but not darkness. In fact, we can use Newton's prism to break white light
into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color. You cannot
measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness
and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is? You measure
the amount of light present. Isn't this correct? Darkness is a term used
by man to describe what happens when there is no light present."
Finally the young man asked the professor, "Sir, does evil exist?"
Now uncertain, the professor responded, "Of course, as I have already said.
We see it everyday. It is in the daily examples of man's inhumanity to man.
It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These
manifestations are nothing else but evil.
To this the student replied, "Evil does not exist, sir, or at least it does
not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like
darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of
God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man
does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes
when there is no heat, or the darkness that comes when there is no light."
The professor sat down.
God gave us light and as we read the Creation account in Genesis we see that
he gave us all that he pronounced good. Enjoy what he has given us. Though
the world is fallen there is still glimpses of the good that show what once
was and what once will be.