The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?
—Psalm 27:1
We can’t see light itself. We can see only what light lights up, like the little circle of night where the candle flickers....When Jesus says that he is the Light of the World (John 8:12), maybe something like that is part of what he is saying. He himself is beyond our seeing, but in the darkness where we stand, we see, thanks to him, something of the path that stretches out from the door… —Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking, p. 62
Years ago, I stood in a pretty deep darkness. There were a number of reasons for this, some beyond my control, others probably of my own doing. Whatever the cause, I did not know which way to turn and certainly did not know how to go forward.
One day, at the proverbial end of my rope, I called an 800 number for a twenty-four-hour prayer service that I had heard about but never dreamed I would call. The woman who answered asked me what I would like to have her pray about, and as I talked, she must have sensed how lost and confused I was, because she gently interrupted me.
“My dear,” she said, “I want you to repeat after me: I am a child of God, one with God’s Light and Wisdom. I see my way clearly.”
“But I DON’T see my way clearly!” I wailed.
“Oh, but you will,” she assured me. “Just say that over and over and over.”
I made that telephone call over thirty years ago. Perhaps it is not an overstatement to say that from that day forward, I have known deep within myself what the psalmist knows: that God is my light, my salvation. I have had dark times, and I will have them again, but in the midst of that deep darkness there is Light.
Help us, O Lord, to remember: “ I am a child of God, one with God’s light and wisdom. I see my way clearly.” Amen.
Copyright © 2009 Margaret Jones.