* Matthew 6:22b – If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. (NIV)

The only reason we see light is because of little receptors in our eyes called cones and rods. (They get their name from their shape.) The cones allow us to see colors while the rods are responsible for black and white vision. Unless an object glows the way we see it is by light reflecting off of it to our eyes. The light enters our eye and the wavelengths of energy are focused on the receptors of our retina. The cones and rods are stimulated and pass the message to our brain by the optic nerve. In the brain, the message is decoded and we “see” the image. The eye is designed to have the light hit the retina in the area of the eye called the Fovea; there is actually a higher concentration of cones in this area while the rods are more concentrated just outside of this area. The famous “apple of the eye” is the cornea.

The cones come in three types a red, green and a blue one. Now if that sounds familiar it should because they are the three colors that power our televisions and color monitors. Now, these three colors of light can be overlapped to produce all others colors of LIGHT in what is known as an additive process. (Light and color pigments do not combine the same way and yield different results.)

Visible (white) light is a combination of colors but each individual color is its own particular wavelength, which translates into a specific energy. We depend on white light for many things but the individual colors are also important. Our knowledge of colored light and pigments are expanding but we know that humans do react to colors.  There is evidence that they can affect our mood and how we feel while looking at various colors of light.

It is interesting that the triune of red, green and blue light (energy) will give you white light while the same triune of colors in a physical material, like crayons, will give you a dark color. I have never really gotten black it is usually a dark brown color.

I like the comparison of light and the church; the church needs a blend of people (energy) to shine forth God’s glory. Just like it takes the colors of the rainbow to give you white light.

Father, let us use our energies in Your Church so You will get the glory.

• A very informative website about light.  http://www.colormatters.com/color-and-science/electromagnetic-color
• Picture of the eye is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Schematic_diagram_of_the_human_eye_en.svg
• RGB diagram  http://www.diycalculator.com/sp-console.shtml