Life and Light

In Genesis chapter 1, we read about the wonder of creation, the incredible product of the God who
spoke it all into being. Starting in verse 3, we read:
3 Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.
4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.

Those three words appear repeatedly: "Then God said!"  He is our Creator, and if we believe that, we can be convinced that our lives are formed by God, full of value and vitality, with potential to walk in God's ways through a knowledge of Christ and to fulfill His purpose.  Christians should possess a high view of life and treat others from that perspective of valuing life, as God created it.  Each of us has the brand of the divine on our hearts, created in His image, and intended for a life full of meaning meaning.

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There is a direct relationship between Jesus, our life-giver and our light-giver, the One who is the light of the world, about Whom John says in chapter 1 that, "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men."  And, in John 8:12, we can read:

Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life."

The article at The Telegraph website leads off in this manner: "Human life begins in bright flash of light as a sperm meets an egg, scientists have shown for the first time, after capturing the astonishing ‘fireworks’ on film."  At this moment when life begins, as the article puts it: "An explosion of tiny sparks erupts from the egg at the exact moment of conception."

This came from research at Northwestern University in Chicago.  One of the senior authors of the study and an expert in ovarian biology at the school, Professor Teresa Woodruff, said, "It was remarkable." She added, "We discovered the zinc spark just five years ago in the mouse, and to see the zinc radiate out in a burst from each human egg was breathtaking."

But the comments took a more ominous turn, when the professor said, according to the Telegraph, "This means if you can look at the zinc spark at the time of fertilization, you will know immediately which eggs are the good ones to transfer in in vitro fertilization." So this celebration of light at conception turned into a "way of sorting egg quality in a way we’ve never been able to assess before.

John Stonestreet related in a recent Breakpoint commentary...

As Simcha Fisher wrote at Aleteia, when she saw the headline, her response was, “It’s almost . . . as if something amazing is going on! Something that shouldn’t be messed with!”

Unfortunately, that’s not how the people behind this discovery responded. After seeing nature’s “fireworks” their minds turned to how they could use what they saw to control and manipulate nature.

Stonestreet went on:

I remember John Piper once saying that no one looks out over the Grand Canyon and thinks, “I am awesome.” Apparently, however, there are those who – in the words of Fisher – “behold the brilliant spark of life itself” and say “Think of the commercial possibilities.”

The wonder of this discovery is highlighted by former ABC News Science Editor Michael Guillen, writing at FoxNews.com:

The researchers used special chemicals to mimic the moments of conception – the law forbidding them to use actual sperm. In each case, they discovered, the decisive moment was accompanied by a small burst of zinc atoms. The eruptions appeared as flashes of light because of fluorescing agents used by the scientists.

According to science – at precisely a moment of conception known as recombination & decoupling – an incomprehensible outburst of light accompanied the creation of hydrogen and helium, the first atoms of the embryonic cosmos. To this day, the dim afterglow of that seminal light – the so-called cosmic microwave background – is visible to certain kinds of powerful telescopes.

Wow!  Light at creation, light at conception...Guillen went further, saying:

I find it notable that the Bible agrees with science that the universe was conceived in a paroxysm of illumination – I imagine, unlike anything we’ve ever seen. According to Genesis 1:3, that event happened at exactly the moment God uttered the immortal words, “Let there be light.”

The Bible’s explanation of things goes even further, by actually assigning a sacred status to light. In 1 John 1:5, light is identified with the Creator himself: “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.”

And, ponder this statement from Professor Woodruff in the Telegraph story and its implications: "All of biology starts at the time of fertilization, yet we know next to nothing about the events that occur in the human."

Our takeaways for today...first of all, this is a story that can underscore for us the value of life.  Life begins at conception, and this scientific report can help reinforce the wonder of the creative "spark," if you will.  As Dr. Guillen relates, there is a parallel between God speaking the worlds into existence, saying, "Let there be light," and His speaking into a human life, which is brought forth with a spark of light.  Psalm 139 reminds us of the creator God who is our Maker.

We can also be inspired about the vitality of life.  Every human being, from that moment of conception, has a call upon his or her life, and God our designer, intends for us to live that life to fullest.  What an utter disservice we do when we, as mere humans, try to select what embryos live or die.  There is a purpose for each life that God wants to fulfill.