Acts 22:6-11 :

It happened that, as I made my journey, and came close to Damascus, about noon, suddenly there shone from the sky a great light around me. I fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ He said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you persecute.’

“Those who were with me indeed saw the light and were afraid, but they didn’t understand the voice of him who spoke to me. I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ The Lord said to me, ‘Arise, and go into Damascus. There you will be told about all things which are appointed for you to do.’ When I couldn’t see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of those who were with me, I came into Damascus.

Here we read about an un-identified light from heaven. This kind of thing does happen. We shouldn’t immediately discount people who experience the supernatural. Today, people still have “encounters” with strange things. These things are probably related to the spiritual world in some way. Often, however, the events that people witness are not of God as this one was.

This event was both horrible and wonderful. It was horrible because it was so terrifying to see a strange thing that disturbs the natural order that God intended for us and because it was Jesus that was speaking to this persecutor. It was wonderful because Jesus didn’t kill him but gave him mercy and grace. Jesus has the power to destroy, but now is the time of salvation and Paul wanted his own brothers to hear this wonderful message and realize that persecuting Jesus is the wrong thing to do.

It is also interesting that in this passage we get more details about Paul’s encounter with Jesus than Luke recorded earlier. Isn’t it interesting that Paul says that it was the “glory of the light” that blinded him? Some say that heaven will be boring, but that idea doesn’t make sense when even the light of heaven is so intense that it will blind a sinful man.