Lens Flare

It is a phrase that I learned only recently, putting a name to something many of us have observed but never identified formally. Lens flare is what happens when a light catches your video or photograph in just the right way that it scatters its rays across the capture. It’s when you change your vantage point and out from the shadows a light appears that coats your scene in a fresh coat of golden beauty.

Lens flare is akin to the sunrise, that moment of day when one looks to the sky and cannot help but take notice that the night is fading, the light has come, the Sun has dawned on humanity.

That moment when the warmth of the Sun crests the horizon is quite unlike any other. In it, the long night retreats and the joy of a new day is restored.

Once, I was out on a run in my neighbourhood and struck up a conversation with a neighbour that was gardening. I made a small remark, something alike to “have a great day.” He looked up and with a smile simply replied, “every day is a great day.” This moment left a surprisingly profound impact on my outlook upon life.

Within the current cultural moment, I often feel a heavy tension when I say something like this. The idea that every day is a great day is not one that many feel they can resonate with anymore. In fact, to many I believe a platitude like this can in some ways feel insulting. To know that many go through such hardships and still look out upon the world with an underlying belief that life is good can feel out of touch with reality to a great many.

As so many lose faith in “institutions” and culture as a whole, despair seems a common approach. Adopting this dismal Eeyore-ish mentality appears to be the right response to the things we see unfolding in the world around us.

Recently, I re-watched The Dark Knight with my brothers. Each time it gets better, which is always the mark of truly great cinema. It’s an excellent film that asks some really hard questions and gets you thinking. One line from it, near the midpoint in the story during a press conference, Harvey Dent says to the people of Gotham: “The night is darkest just before the dawn, but I promise you, the dawn is coming.”

In the middle of the darkness of the world around us and the current cultural moment, the dawn is coming.

“The people living in darkness have seen a great light, on those living in a land of deep darkness a light has dawned.”
Isaiah 9:2

Isaiah prophesies around the eighth century B.C. about a light dawning on those living in a land of deep darkness. This language may not be what we use in day to day conversations, but I think many resonate much more with this kind of imagery when thinking about culture. Deep darkness. We feel it. The more engrossed we become in the news and happenings of the modern world, the more this is true.

Yet, in the darkness, shining forth in glory, there is light on display for all to see. Once future prophecy, now written history, forever reigning in truth. Bursting into the scene, like lens flare flooding an image with light and the sunrise reshaping the way we see the world, Christ has come. Jesus. God made flesh. Into the deep darkness of our world came a Saviour of no darkness at all. His plan was not to condemn those living in darkness but to lead them into the light.

“Wake up sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
Ephesians 5:14

A glorious light for all mankind, flooding into the scene. Plunging into the land of deep darkness is the Saviour of the world, the Prince of Peace. He is beyond compare. In the light of what He has done by His blood on the cross, every day is indeed a great day. Now we live as those who have been overwhelmed by the light of Christ, living a faithful witness to others, like a lens flare bursting into our city for His glory.