Article September 27, 2004 Issue

LIGHT ON!

By Aaron Bingham,—Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts

When Most People Think Of Light, they see light bulbs, the sun, or electricity. But if you've ever read the Bible, or watched a Road Runner TV cartoon where a light bulb appears over the head of Wile E. Coyote each time he concocts a clever plan to snag Road Runner, you realize that light is also a symbol of intelligence or inspiration.

When I was a sophomore in college, I had a moment when I desperately wanted that yellow light bulb to go on over my head. I had to write a lengthy paper for an English class, and one night after spending about an hour trying to get started on a thesis, I was no closer to finding one. I'd become totally frustrated at my inability to think clearly. Worse still, the paper was due the next day. At the point I reached out to God and asked Him to show me what to do. Relying on my own intelligence was not helping me find the answers. So I went back to my dorm room to pray.

I felt inspired to read my King James Bible, and the page I flipped open to taught me more about the creative process than I'd ever learned before. The passage my hand rested on was in Genesis, where it says: "And the earth was without form, and void: and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light" (1:2, 3).

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