“Birdbath after rainstorm” ©Eric Massanari
Light is a powerful and life-sustaining presence in our lives. We
depend upon it, especially the light of the Sun around which we turn
each day and night. Without this great light, life would cease on
Earth.
On that same trip we stopped in Las Vegas, Nevada. As we walked down
the Las Vegas Strip I was overwhelmed by the rainbow hues of neon,
casting colorful light on the faces of people, and reflecting off the
tinted windows of casinos. I couldn’t feel this light. It
had no endurance, no vitality to it. That strange city is a house of
a very different kind of stone, a wholly different kind of light, and
it felt terribly life-less.
Across spiritual traditions Light is used as a metaphor to describe
experiences of awakening, deepening awareness, and expanding insight.
We use terms like enlightenment, and illumination. It
is associated with the revelation of Divine truth and presence. In my
own Christian tradition, light becomes a primary metaphor for God’s
gift to the world in Jesus. In the words of Zechariah, father of John
the Baptist:
By the tender mercy of our God,
a dawn from on high will break upon us,
to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of
death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.
Luke 1:78-79
The Light that guides us to our true selves and “on the way of
peace” is revealed in so many ways. Sometimes it shows itself in
blinding, revelatory flashes of insight and understanding rising from
within, and sometimes it reveals itself only in dim glimmers of
possibility and hope amidst the darkness. Sometimes, it even appears
as darkness to our eyes that have been blinded by the life-less
lights of our own creation.
The Light dwells in all people, glows through any moment, and streams
through the many traditions of faith and spirit that have illumined
the souls of women and men through millennia and summoned people to
gather and know their shimmering unity.
As you go about your day, look for signs of the Light shining in the
world around you and through the people you meet. Trust that this
will be revealed to you. And as you live, trust also that you bear
this Light in your own being - it is your own nature - and you have
been given this to share freely with the world.
What we plant in the soil of contemplation
we will reap in the harvest of action.
Meister
Eckhart
