The flame within us

Light Attracts Light

 

By Emily Freeman

To the Girl With the Strawberry Blonde Hair,

I wonder if you know you are an answer?

You, walking through the door with eyes sparkling and laugh ringing, bringing happy into the room with you, and filling up the whole house with it.

Did you know when you settled in at the counter for lunch

that you settled right into a heart that was longing for light?

You, carrying a burden, could easily have spent the afternoon focused inward.   I watched you, knowing it had been several lonely days and two unsettling weeks.  And yet the light spilled out of you and sparkled in the air around you and seeped into the dark spaces.

Watching you there, I couldn’t help but wonder why, in spite of all of the dark days you have been wading through, the light flooded out of you.  How have you captured all that light?  What is it that buoys you up so that you have strength to sustain you during your own dark days, and still have light to offer?

You wouldn’t know this…but we needed your light just then.

We had been twelve hours praying.  And that was just on that day.  It doesn’t count the hours of praying if you put together all the mornings and dark nights, and waking hours that have filled the last months.

Praying for light.

And then you walked in, bringing the light with you.

And those who longed for light were drawn to you.

Drawn to the glitter and sparkle and shimmer that escapes from you unaware.

Your goodness.

It draws people to you.

Because light attracts light.

I know that light.

It is the Spirit.

And I felt it when you walked in.

And within five minutes I knew you were an answer.  In more ways than just one.

And I was grateful that you have lived your life in such a way that you qualify for the light that allows you to act as an instrument in the hands of the Lord.

Thank you for being an answer.

But even more important, thank you for living in the light.

Because I know your life hasn’t been perfect lately.  

I know that you know what it is to press forward through the dark.

And, still you bring the light.

 “At times our own light goes out
and is rekindled by a spark from another person.
Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude
of those who have lighted the flame within us.”

Albert Schweitzer

Is there someone who has rekindled the flame in you?

Someone who you are drawn to because of the light you feel within them?  

Someone who is led by the Spirit and shares that warmth with you?

Could you write them a letter of gratitude today for the flame they ignite in you?