We Don't Need No Illumination

Submitted by Alan Marsden on Sat, 07/03/2026 - 00:00

We have recently enjoyed a pleasant spell of high pressure, which means clear skies by day and by night. As I travelled to Tuesday evening’s Trustees’ Meeting, I experienced a moonlit dusk. By 9pm, the chapel was bathed in moonlight, and the landscape was illuminated by its rays. It was so strong that I cast a shadow, and not a blurry, vague one, but sharp and well defined as though I were in the sun.

On my way to the meeting, I decided I would practise my Jamaican accent while singing some lines from Pink Floyd's 1979 Another Brick in the Wall (“We don’t need no education”) in a loud voice; one easily gets bored on a night-time bike ride. To my horror, and several lines into the song, I approached a couple of walkers on the dark lane who must have heard every word. I quickly changed back to my regular way of speaking and bade them a good evening. Their reply was a little reticent, it must be said, though it was not uncivil. Had I seen them sooner, I should have held my tongue, but for all the beauty and wonders of moonlight, I did not see them in time. Thankfully, they have no idea who I am, or so I hope.

Having pedalled away form them as quickly as possible, I again pondered that lovely, lunar light. It was pleasant, but what if God had ordained that the moon would provide our ‘daylight’, in the absence of a greater light, the sun? So moonlight from 7am-8pm, but no light at all for all other times. Had we not known better, we should have been content, though we would have limited knowledge of colour and greater ignorance of the world around us. Our eyes would adjust and we should take for granted what we can and cannot see. Thankfully, God in His kindness gave us the sun, and what a brilliant source of light we have in comparison. In Revelation 21:23 we read:

And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

What if the brilliance of God’s own light is at least as great a contrast as that now currently noted between sun and moon? What we now see, even in broad daylight, is dim and gloomy compared to the things we shall see (like angels, for instance) when we have divine light radiating about us? If we could only begin to imagine the dazzling splendours and optical magnificence we shall one day enjoy, the current, temporary dullness and monotony would not get us down. In the next life, we shall have no need of lamp or candle, and nor an education.