Although I only dabble in photography, I notice light so much more than I did a year or so ago. Morning light, late afternoon light, subtle pinks and blues, the way bright midday sun bleaches out photographs.

Light is beautiful.

Have you ever been around a person who is dark? You can just feel it. Have you ever been to a dark city, where everything is gray and gloomy and people are downcast? (There’s a line in The Book Thief that has stuck with me: “The day was gray, the color of Europe.”) I encountered that darkness in Europe and in a person I loved and thought I knew well. That kind of darkness is powerful and consuming and disturbing. It rattles you.

Light, however, is refreshing and invigorating. I love it. And I love people who love light. People who are real, who are honest. Truth tellers. People who worship God in spirit and in truth. I’m drawn to the light in them. Sometimes you can even see the light sparkling in the eyes and shining from their countenance as you soak it up through their words.

And as I dig into Scripture this year using the 3650 plan, I notice how often light and dark are mentioned. Just a few places I’ve marked:

But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of the light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:4-5

The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? ~ Psalm 27:1

And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. ~ Revelation 22:5

…but the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. ~ Isaiah 60:19

A line from a Jars of Clay song resonates with me…”You grow where the light is…”

That’s where I want to be. Where the light is. Basking, soaking it up, Growing. With people who are real.

And another song, this one from Mumford & Sons, has a line that I nod my head to every time I hear it: “a lover of the light.”

That’s me: a lover of the light.