Lamp Light

The Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, VA has a magnificent collection of Tiffany lamps. A curator recently gave a talk about them and mentioned that what we see today is not the same as what our ancestors saw when the lamps were first made in 1895. They literally saw things in a different light.

Tiffany and his customers used Edison light bulbs which have a yellowish tinge to them, unlike those now available which give off a whiter light. The stained glass looks different depending on which portion of the spectrum is used to illuminate it. White light makes for truer color, but this is not the vision that Tiffany had when he created the shades. Are we enhancing his work or altering it?

Many believe that we must reproduce the past in order to stay true to it. There are raucous debates in the political sphere about reinterpreting the Constitution and actual violence taking place over new interpretations of religious writings. There are so many perspectives about who God is and what God wants from us that there are about 38,000 denominations of Christianity in the US and 270 religions in the world. Each adherent is positive that truth resides within the wall of this belief or that and that others should recognize it for what it is: the Truth.

Perhaps St. John brings a needed perspective. His first epistle tells us that God is light. We've come a long way in our understanding of exactly how complex this metaphor really is. Scientists have mapped the electromagnetic spectrum and discovered that visible light makes up only a portion of it. No one can point to a particular wavelength and claim that it, and it alone, is Light. What we are able to see is not all there is and some species can see more of it than others.

Just as this chart is divided into sections, we each view God from our own portion of the spectrum. God must prune away the barriers that prevent us from seeing it in its entirety and these obstacles are unique to each of us. God might be using an Edison bulb to reveal the Divine perspective in one person and a General Electric product in another, but more of the God spectrum will be revealed if we share our individual revelations.

Must we make a choice that excludes one or another's vision of God? Just as we change our perception of Tiffany's genius when we use modern lighting products, the more we can learn of God from our scientists, liberals, conservatives and even agnostics, the greater amount of detail we grasp. Old does not equal better and same does not equal best. Diverse lenses help us see more of the Light we cannot see.