Photographer Ronn Murray likes cold weather. Very cold weather. “Cold means clear skies,” notes journalist Lee Cowan in a TV interview with Murray. “And that can open a window to the wonderful!”

Ronn and his wife, Marketa, provide Alaskan photography tours dedicated to tracking Earth’s most spectacular light show—aurora borealis (the northern lights). Murray speaks of the experience as “very spiritual.” If you’ve ever seen this iridescent display dance across the heavens, you’ll understand why.

But the lights aren’t only a northern phenomenon. Aurora australis, nearly identical to borealis, occurs simultaneously in the south. That’s because they’re the same kind of lights.

In the disciple John’s telling of the Christmas story, he skips the stable and shepherds and goes directly to the One who “brought light to everyone” (John 1:4 nlt). When John later writes of a heavenly city, he describes the source of its light. This “city has no need of sun or moon, for the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its light” (Revelation 21:23 NLT). This light source is Jesus—the same source referenced in John 1. And for those who inhabit this future dwelling, “There will be no night there—no need for lamps or sun—for the Lord God will shine on them” (22:5 nlt).

As our lives reflect this light of the world—the One who created aurora borealis and australis—we open a window to the truly wonderful.