What If Light Was Never About What We Thought?
So this blog came about after I saw a post claiming that scientists had discovered mitochondria communicate using light, revealing that humans are essentially beings of light.
Whilst this isn’t quite right, the concept of light as communication is fascinating.
And, as always, when something speaks to facts especially around science, my mind automatically goes to Scripture.
Almost instantly, I thought of the very first mention of light:
“Let there be light.” Genesis 1:3
But have you ever held a belief so literally that you never stopped to ask what it actually meant?
You just keep building an understanding around something because it’s what you’ve always known and yet somehow still miss the deeper meaning.
If I’m honest, I think I’ve done this with light.
When I have read Genesis, I have automatically thought of the only sources of light I know: the sun, moon, stars, or even man-made light.
But then I realised something I had somehow overlooked all these years…
They hadn’t even been created yet.
So what kind of light was this?
The original Hebrew reads:
וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים יְהִי אוֹר וַיְהִי־אוֹר׃
Vayomer Elohim: Yehi or; vayehi or.
“And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.”
The Hebrew here is layered. Yehi (יְהִי) means:
“May there be”
“Let become”
Not necessarily a forceful command, but almost a bringing forth.
And Or (אוֹר) means light but not simply light as we understand it physically.
It can also point toward:
illumination
life
clarity
revelation
order
goodness
Then we read:
“God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness.”
This stopped me.
Because symbolically, creation seems to begin through differentiation.
Things become named.
Known.
Distinct.
What comes first?
Presence the Spirit (Ruach) hovering.
Communication “And God said…”
Light.
And only then comes form and ordering.
That thought deeply struck me:
Communication precedes formation.
The world becomes intelligible through what is spoken, revealed, and illuminated.
And for possibly the first time as someone who has studied, listened to, and read Scripture for years, something clicked for me.
Why does John begin this way? John 1:1
“In the beginning was the Word…”
The Greek word used here is Logos (λόγος).
And it means far more than simply word in the way we think of it today.
It can mean:
speech
meaning
reason
pattern
an ordering principle
divine communication
John intentionally mirrors Genesis.
“In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness…”
And suddenly I found myself seeing all the references to Jesus as light differently.
“I am the light of the world.”
What does light do?
It:
reveals
guides
exposes what is hidden
helps us see reality
reduces fear in darkness
enables relationship
Because when we can see, we can connect.
“I can see you.”
What if Jesus being the light was never merely about glowing divinity?
What if it also meant:
the One through whom reality becomes understandable.
The One who illuminates truth, which suddenly makes this verse feel even deeper:
“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Now, I don’t profess to understand it all, but I do know Jesus often spoke in metaphors and parables.
And sometimes I wonder if we, as humans, can become so literal that we miss what is trying to be revealed beneath the surface.
Perhaps discernment is not simply intellectual.
Perhaps it is something we embody.
Something we experience.
Something that becomes illuminated within us.
And maybe this is why this thought lingered with me after reading that mitochondria post.
Not because humans are literally “beings of light.”
But because something about it stirred a deeper reflection and what if light has always been about more than what we see?
What if light is also a metaphor for:
connection
awareness
truth
communication
things becoming known
Maybe healing, faith, and growth all begin in much the same way.
Something becomes illuminated…
And suddenly we can see what we couldn’t before. John1:5
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
There was no pun intended when I said this sent me down a path of enlightenment…
But perhaps there was illumination.
