All of the Light (Sleeping At Last)

"With golden string, our universe was clothed in light." 

Light, weaving through, holding together, brimming over all creation. And we, earth-children, illuminated dust, watching, waiting, seeking, longing for it in this season. We look at creation and even at ourselves, and sing along with the yearning refrain of today's song: 

“Let there be light (in me), 

Let there be light (in the world), 

Let me be right (oh, please).”

That all of us bear within ourselves infinite possibility, a spark of that divine light, this is the hope of incarnation, of a God who came to the world in human flesh.  The hope that God still chooses to be revealed in the world through our human flesh. That Christ, The Light, may "be born in us this day," as the old hymn says (and every day, one might add). That the Light shines not just in the darkness of some dichotomous world, disconnected from us; but the light shines in the shadowy places within us, too; illuminating us, revealing in us beauty, potential, belovedness.

Today we claim within ourselves this infinite possibility, we let the divine spark within us shine on. Shine On, refusing to surrender this identity, as Light-bearers, not to imposed inferiority or bad theologies, our brokenness or failures; none of these can squelch the light of God’s Love that has come among us.  We Shine On, knowing that so much of our hope-filled resistance hinges on learning how to see ourselves in light of our God. 

We keep that tenacious hope that the light is within us, among us, waiting to be stirred, seen, tended, grown. One of the things we can attest to here at AMP is that the light of God unfolds in unexpected places: a stable, a dream, a foreign land, office cubicles, street corners, youtube channels. The folks at rethinkchurch.org have invited people to an Advent photo-a-day project, in which they encourage everyone to take one photo each day that captures the theme of that day and share it (Check some of them out here https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/rethinkchristmas). Like them let us pause in these days, let us look, search, watch for the snatches of light hiding in plain sight, illuminating creation, announcing 'Christ comes!'

"The light shines in the darkness but the darkness has not understood it. " John 1:5 

In what ways does this season invite you to see and better understand the light that shines in you? in us? 

Infinity times infinity, is this the Light when shared between us? How could seeing the Light within and among  and around us transform our advent waiting?

God of Illumination, train our eyes to see in each moment, in each being, the glint of possibility and the sparks of your grace. 

-Lindsey