Light in the Shadows
Photo Credit: David Rynde/Flickr (cc)
Enlightenment has always been gradual for me -
I remember what happened, for example,
after my children were born,
how I came to know who I was now:
each day a little more room
in my heart, in my knowing,
as they grew, as their aliveness gathered something more:
to grip, to smile, to turn over, to crawl, to walk, to speak.
It was all this gathering that taught me:
Enlightenment is gradual like the sun rising
even if you just suddenly see it and believe it happened in a second,
but when you think about it, you understand there’s an orbit,
there’s a trajectory of love: the way you have to learn to carry others,
to heal yourself, to wait or then to hurry, all known by the light in the sky
and the light coming from a mystery that is always whispering your name,
saying things like: this is yours to care about; these are yours to spend your life with;
this is yours to let go of; these are yours to give everything for.
Enlightenment is gradual like the moon rising,
Even when you thought it disappeared, there it appears again,
reaching out to you, illuminating the stars that are your GPS,
the directions in the night sky that shine out: God is everywhere.
You may lift your head and wonder, but as they move slowly
across the hemisphere, you know, you are certain:
love is being revealed to you in time and space;
in people who gaze with you toward the starry heavens.
The mystery constantly shifts in shapes for you to decipher;
and you find the nexus of the truth there:
it is not a moment; it is all the moments:
Look. Watch. See. Know. Love. Epiphany.
The Rev. Mary Lautzenhiser Bellon is a clergy member of the Iowa Annual Conference. This post is republished from the conference's spiritual resource, "Abiding: From Exile to Hope." Subscribe to From Exile to Hope →