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What color is a red rose in a dark room? No, this is not one of those “if-a-tree-falls-in-the-woods-and-there’s-no-one-there-to-hear-it-does-it-make-a-sound” questions. For in that case there certainly are vibrations in the air when a tree falls, even if there are no ears to perceive them, and no mind to interpret them as sound. But what of the rose in the dark? Ironically, the answer is, it has no color. Not because you can’t see the color, but because it isn’t there. Color is a property of the light itself, and where there is no light, there is no color.
This is the opposite of how most of us think of color. We tend to think of things as being red, or blue, or green, or some combination of the myriad variations in between. But in actuality, things just reflect the color contained in the glow. The things themselves are not those colors, the colors come from that by which we see them. All the vast array of vibrant colors; the fiery reds, the luscious greens, the cool blue hues of ocean and sky – all these are from the light, and not intrinsic to the things themselves.
“But wait a second”, you might be saying – “if things only reflect certain colors, wouldn’t it be true to say that they are those colors?” To which I answer, no. For just like our reposing roses in the dark, they have no color without the light. Form they have, texture too, but the color comes from the illumination. We say a page is “white” because it has the quality of reflecting all the visible frequencies hidden within the rays falling upon it.
That’s another paradox of light – mixing all the frequencies of visible light together produces white, unlike the finger paint of childhood. Do you remember mixing finger paints together as a kid? Adding a little blue and yellow, you got green, a little blue and red, you got purple, but mixing them all together you got a muddy dark substance with not distinguishable shade. Not so with light. When all the visible frequencies are basically equal you get pure white.
We think ours is a world bursting with color, merely illuminated by the boring white light pouring through our window. And even as we marvel at the prism’s dividing display, we tend to think of it as something the prism does, and not the content of the light itself. How characteristic of our Creator that He made something completely transparent to be the instrument of the rainbow’s revelation.
When I first learned this fact, I immediately thought of the verse, “For who sees anything different in you. What do you have that you did not receive?” (1 Cor. 4:7). We see the variations all around us, but do we stop to consider that it is the brightness itself that delivers the distinctions, and not merely the ability to see them? “In Your light we see light…” (Psa. 36.9) and the wild range of brilliant colors in it.
I’ve always been fascinated with the creation account from the opening pages of Scripture. I’m one of those simpletons who take the telling as a literal depiction of the first six days. I see nothing in the text to suggest advantages in another hermeneutic. On the contrary, I find much instruction in taking it as is. The shining forth of light at the word of God on the first day and the advent of the sun on the forth are thick with meaning. We are meant to notice the apparent contradiction of days and nights without a sun. Are we not told that there will be no need for sun or moon in the new creation, for the Lamb will be its light? Are we not meant, then, to see the sun as merely a placeholder for the true light?
Light is so ubiquitous we forget it’s there. We walk around so freely by its presence, yet seldom recognize the fullness of its gifts. How hesitantly we would move about without its illumination. Take notice of the light today. From the gentle flicker of a candle to the brilliance of the noonday sun, recognize with gratitude the world of color all around you is delivered on its beams. Then recall anew that all light is a stand-in for the true Light of the world, the giver of all good and perfect gifts, that if every bulb and flame and blazing star were snuffed out, the light would still be shining. Remember, too, that he formed us as we are to reflect various aspects of His nature. He made us to differ. We have received all we have from Him. “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.” (Isa. 60:1).
