It's all about the light

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Without light we don't have photography, and the image of the magnolia leaves wouldn't exist if my camera had not functioned so that the shutter opened and allowed the light to pass through the lens which focused it on the sensor which recorded the information -- or simply, if I had forgotten to remove the lens cap. But even if I and the camera had functioned correctly but the light had not been there, there would be no image of the leaves.
The light outside changes constantly, and the way we see things is affected greatly by the amount of light and the color of the light. I remember walking around the grounds of the Hermitage on the afternoon when I took this photograph, looking at all the unfamiliar sights, taking in everything and making decisions about what I wanted to shoot. I was in a hurry because I had gotten there just before sunset and the light was changing quickly. As the red light waves from the sun became more intense, so did the colors of everything around me. I was walking by the magnolia tree when I looked up and was struck by how the brown undersides of the leaves had taken on this beautiful amber glow, and how blue the sky looked as it peeked through the branches of the tree, reflecting on the shiny dark green side of the leaves. There were places on the leaves that looked like they had been painted with splashes of color, reds, oranges and blues. I've seen this happen in water before but had never really noticed it in a setting like this. It had become a beautiful abstract painting right before my eyes -- and all because of the light, both direct light and reflected light.
At this point the romantic in me wants to come up with some profound spiritual analogy about how God is light, and so on and so forth.
But the practical side of me just wants to thank God for the light, just enjoy the fact that we have it and I have eyes to see it.