"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." (James 1:17)

James used three unique words in his description of the heavenly Father. The Greek phrase is ouk eni parallage e tropes aposkiasma. A good translation would be, "There is not any possibility of change nor place for a shadow to turn." Certainly, this is similar to John’s critical message: "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5).

We are told that the Lord Jesus, the Word "made flesh" (John 1:14), is "the light of the world" (John 8:12). Moreover, because He is also the "Lord of lords, and King of kings" (Revelation 17:14), He is the only one who "hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen" (1 Timothy 6:16). The great paradoxical mystery of the triune Godhead can only be seen and understood as we recognized the Lord Jesus Christ as "the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Colossians 2:9). Philip once wanted to "see the Father." Jesus simply told him, and us, "he that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (John 14:9).

No wonder, then, that when we are given a physical description of the resurrected Christ (the only physical description of the Lord Jesus, by the way), He is described by John as such: "His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace" (Revelation 1:14-15). Centuries earlier, Daniel saw the preincarnate Word and noted: "His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass" (Daniel 10:6). All of us would do well to "see" our Lord this way when we seek His face in prayer. HMM III