Seek The Light

The Hyacinth Bean is one of my favorite vines. Just a few seeds provide an unsurpassed green cover for a porch. Plant them near a trellis facing south and they’ll provide shade, beautiful flowers and long, purple pods that will provide more of the same next year.

We took several shots in Missouri, where I met the vine in action. This one shot reminds me of people who want to grow, but have missed what they needed.

This portion of the vine branched toward shadow, when what it needed was light. Note that the vine is long and reaching; the further under the porch it grows, we see fewer leaves, fewer flowers. While where light reaches, the vine is full.

Such are we, without the light. John speaks of the light at the beginning of his book:

In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. (John 1:4-5 KJV)

Many today look upon science and its discoveries as being the light of the world. Over decades, I’ve found that many scientific discoveries are soon discredited, though the memory of their newsworthiness is greater than the understanding of their failure. Too often the media hails discoveries but must include disclaimers and wording such as “theoretical”, “possible”, “future possibilities”, etc. Science appears solid, but lauded discoveries have been proven incorrect (or even untruthful) under subsequent scrutiny.

Many scientific discoveries have been correct and were denied by religious beliefs held at the time. Copernicus and Galileo could attest to that. Thank goodness they did not pay the price to the church that Socrates paid to politicians for his intellectual discoveries.

Interpreting … the world also shall be stable, that it be not moved (1 Chronicles 16:30 KJV) as meaning that earthquakes cannot occur would have shown as incorrect early and often. So that interpretation did not move forward. Or, that the earth is fixed in one spot, which would be an incorrect interpretation based what we know today. In the sixteenth century men interpreted to mean just that, in spite of newly discovered scientific knowledge and unbelievers still use that at every opportunity.

We are told to follow the light:

Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. (John 8:12 KJV)

Unfortunately, not all religious people follow the Light of the World. There are religious leaders described to us:

But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. (2 Peter 2:1-2 KJV)

Such do not negate God’s message, simply pervert it. As I’ve written often before, be Bereans:

These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. (Acts 17:11 KJV)

Seek the light of God. Do not confuse it with accomplishments and failures of men.