The Light of the Son

By Jeff S. McIntosh

Light helps us see truth—and see it more clearly.

After working in department stores selling men’s clothing for several years, I became quite proficient at coordinating shirts and ties with the suits I sold. It was rewarding to pick the perfect assortment, and my customers were usually pleased with the choices I presented them.

However, in one particular store, the suits were in an area illuminated with fluorescent lighting while the shirts and ties were displayed in another area under incandescent bulbs. This difference in lighting proved to be quite challenging.

It often happened that after a customer had decided upon a suit or two, I’d go select an array of shirts and ties that I thought would work well. But once the shirts and ties were moved from one section to the other and placed next to the suits, the result was surprising—the colors “changed” in the new light and did not match at all.

Taking a suit to the area that displayed the shirts and ties worked better. But even with this approach, customers often became confused, noticing that the suits we had in hand didn’t look like the ones they had just selected. A suit that looked olive green under the fluorescent lighting now appeared gray, taupe, or brown when viewed under incandescent lights. Black, charcoal, and navy suits underwent similar transformations.

More often than not, I had to solve the problem by taking customers out a nearby door to look at their selections in the daylight. By seeing with the light of the sun, we could quickly discern true colors and make appropriate choices.

In the real world outside a department store, we are faced with choices every day. Sometimes those choices are discolored by the precepts of men. Others are clouded by the temptations of this world. Options placed before us may not always seem right, or we may be confused about what is or is not real. We may wonder how to discern what is true.

I have found that the solution is to look at those options with the light, or example, of the Son, for He promised, “I will also be your light in the wilderness; and I will prepare the way before you, if it so be that ye shall keep my commandments; … and ye shall know that it is by me that ye are led” (1 Nephi 17:13; emphasis added).

Striving to choose with true light will help us make proper choices for our families and ourselves. And by looking to God through the guidance of the Holy Ghost, we will not be deceived but will know good from evil (see Moroni 7:16).

As we make choices to follow Him, our loving Savior has even promised to share His light with us: “That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day” (D&C 50:24).

Photo illustration by David Stoker