More than that, I was drawn inward, towards the inner canvas of my thoughts and feelings at the day!
A young man came to meet me to talk about his distress over his failed marriage after his son was born with a developmental dysfunction. In order to conceal and pacify his inward brokenness he drifted towards spending hours together watching whatever he could find in the Internet. He turned the night into a solo viewing time and slept during the day. He regretted about it and is now making efforts to restore relationship at home. I felt encouraged by his confessional and regretful attitude. It is helping him to rebuild the marriage.
Amidst the intense dark clouds the setting sun is shining and spreading its rays wide in to the horizon and the sky upwards.
The darkness and light are physical realities.
But light is also a spiritual reality!
It was when Jesus broke bread at supper time in the home of two travellers, with whom Jesus of Nazareth was walking and talking on their way, their eyes were opened to see that their guest was the risen Jesus. The inner anguish over the crucifixion and death of Jesus had drowned them into darkness and hopelessness. They were disciples who were with Jesus for three and half years. Yet their belief and experience did not sustain them to live in faith in their dark hour. Jesus had to appear to lead them to light and hope!
The inner darkness arise from fear, stress, grief, and anxiety. It is a freezing experience as darkness invades our mind space and soul landscape!
I feel moved by the way the third verse in the first chapter of the book of Genesis in the Bible made a proclamation: 'Let there be light and there was Light'! That is how light came in to being. This light existed even before the Sun and Moon were created.
This eternal Light is the 'Lamp unto our feet and light unto our path'.
A darkened sky, a cloudy inner mind space and a sad soul space are all realities. A greater reality than these is the Light within us and the 'Word who became flesh' in our inmost being, about which we shall meditate a lot during the season of Christmas!
Living in hope and gracing our lives with the inner light are the way forward for all of us, who are fumbling travellers and fretful pathfinders!
A child wrote 'Sugar' on a paper and asked me if it was sweet! I laughed. But he had something more to say to me. He said that, he is a goal keeper for the junior football team in the school because he practiced for it for five years. That is when it dawned on me that it is not speaking or reading or teaching about God, one experiences God. But by exercising spiritual disciplines of reading the scripture, meditating, praying, and seeking after God. It is by seeking after God steadfastly and earnestly we shall find Him. The eternal Light becomes the Light within us during this process!
M.C.Mathew (text and photo)
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