Illumination

 Blessed are you
who bear the light / in unbearable times,
who testify / to its endurance / amid the unendurable,
who bear witness / to its persistence / when everything seems
in shadow / and grief.
Blessed are you
in whom / the light lives,
in whom / the brightness blazes—
your heart / a chapel,
an altar where / in the deepest night
can be seen / the fire that / shines forth in you
in unaccountable faith, / in stubborn hope,
in love that illumines / every broken thing / it finds.
            —“Blessed are you who bear the light” by Jan Richardson

The word “light” can be both a verb and a noun. I can light candles or a campfire; I can light the area around me. I can also shine my light or provide a light or create light. Light can be an action or an object. It can give or receive. It can show or be shown. Light can spread wisdom, and it can embody that wisdom. Light—in all its forms—is powerful. It creates change and enables transformation. It alters everything it touches. It can give courage and allow us to rise to new heights of resolve, possibility, justice, compassion. And like Jan Richardson suggests in her poem above, light lives in us. Light moves us. Light lights us. Light creates paths forward where only darkness existed before. And light exposes; it challenges the shadows of deceit, lies, false promises. Light burns away the murkiness of pain, grief, loss, anxiety. Light is our calling.  God calls us to illumine both the brokenness and the hope in our world. And it is this spirit that we enter the season of Lent with the theme ILLUMINATION. We are called to light and to be light for all those around us. Together, we will explore the possibilities of illumination and discover ways to shine our lights.

See you in church,
Christy