fluorescence

For those of you that have tracked us down on Skype, the difficulty you have had in seeing our beautiful faces was caused by this atrocity:


Yeah. That's a naked fluorescent bulb hanging from the ceiling. And that is the only type of light source used in the house.

Believe or not, I feel like I've been putting up with this exceptionally well. I also feel like I deserve that pat on the back considering my obsessive compulsive tendencies related to lighting.

(so I have an addiction to perfect lighting... so what? I'm an interior designer and I'm obsessed with sunlight...)

It makes it a lot easier to accept this when you go in "houses" all the time that are pitch black during midday, because there's no access to the sun unless the "door" is open, much less electricity.

But that unfortunately does not erase the impact of those endless allnighters where I was learning NEVER to do that. EVER. (surprise: interior design does not exist in Kenya)

So this morning we read this during staff devotions:

"This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin." 1 John 1:5-7

One of the reasons non-color-corrected fluorescent light is bad, in a design sense, is that the color temperature is too cool. Natural sunlight has a much warmer color temperature (as do good old fashioned incandescent bulbs, and even candles). And any makeup wearing gal will know- this is particularly for bad for skin tones. Fluorescent light washes you out, and you see every ugly imperfection.

But that one fluorescent bulb can give light to a whole room. It's a light that drive my eyes crazy and makes me feel ugly when I look in the mirror, but its still illumination.

So this morning I was thinking- maybe sometimes the Light of God is fluorescent. Its so blindingly bright that it shows every imperfection. We can't spend all our time waiting for perfect light that shows things in just the way we want them to look (just me? ok...). If we say that we have no sin, maybe we're choosing to not face the real Light, light that shows us the reality of who we are.

Did I just compare God to bad lighting? Yikes.

Maybe its a stretch. Maybe I'm just trying to squeeeeze some goodness out of that thing.