A Ribbon of Light

Every day I turn on my laptop and am greeted with the desktop wallpaper. It depicts an evening scene on a beach. It is an example of what is called long exposure photography. The shutter was left open for several seconds while someone moved a light source to form a pattern. This photo looks like a red and white ribbon of light hanging in the air. 

I used to take pictures like this back when I was a photographer for my high school newspaper and yearbook. Usually the subject was just a friend writing a word with a flashlight. Often in such photos there is a blur of the person visible in the background, almost like a ghost. But if you do it correctly, the person is completely invisible. The pattern of light appears to be suspended in thin air.  

I have been pondering this image recently. One might even say I have been meditating upon it. Several biblical verses have come to mind. One is Jesus’ teaching that that we are the light of the world. The other is his brother James’ words, “You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” The Teacher of Ecclesiastes made a similar observation, “Life is fleeting, like a passing mist.”  

The photo communicates to me the fleeting nature of human existence. The spiritual teaching is known as impermanence. Our lives are brief appearances in the fabric of spacetime. A shooting star. One could even say we are nothing at all. All we leave behind is a brief streak of light that is gone before a person blinks. 

I recall a scene in the old movie The Time Machine, based on H. G. Wells’ famous novel. The main character is operating his time machine in his workshop, watching the history of the world whiz by. At first he sees people come and go quickly. As he speeds it up, people become a blur and then invisible. He can see only buildings arise and fall. Then he watches as civilizations rise and fall.  Geological eras pass.  

Speeding through time gives us an eternal viewpoint on our lives and the human race as a whole. It puts things in perspective. It is easy to get bent out of shape by what happens during our lives. Elections seem so important at the moment. We paint political choices in apocalyptic terms. If the other side wins it will be the end of our nation as we know it! Possibly the end of our world! 

Such eschatological language fails to remember that this has always been the case. Jesus spoke in apocalyptic terms about the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple. The Book of Revelation, also known as the Apocalypse of John, saw the end of the world coming with the fall of the Roman Empire. Yet Rome fell, and the world continues. 

The universe will survive with either Biden or Trump in the White House for four more years. The world will survive with or without the United States. The earth will survive fine without the human race. It prospered without our species for millions of years, and it will undoubtedly do better without us. Humans are nothing more than a blip in the history of the planet. 

Our individual lives are even more ephemeral. Just a brief ribbon of light shining in the darkness. Our faces and names are forgotten quickly. It will be as if we never were. We are a momentary eddy in the river of time, a dust devil that takes form for a moment and dissipates. We are dust and to dust we shall return. That is what the preacher said on Ash Wednesday.  

We are nothing. Yet we are. We know intuitively that we are more than these passing forms. Jesus knew this. He said, “Before Abraham was, I am.” We are that which does not arise and fall in time. When we see we are nothing, we also see we are everything. The balance of these two is the fullness of truth.  

Nisargadatta, the sage of Mumbai, said, “Wisdom says I am nothing. Love says I am everything. Between the two my life flows.” Jesus said, “You are the light of the world.... Let your light so shine that others might see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” We are a ribbon of light shining for a moment in the twilight. Yet by that light people may glimpse the Kingdom of Heaven.