Into the Light

You’ve seen what I’m talking about. You’re walking into the sun on a spring afternoon when you happen to glance up and see the tree in front of you tinged with green fire. Each leaf has grabbed hold of the sun shining through it and glows with its own inherited light. You look down and see a stretch of grass forming a symphony of refracted emerald and yellow topaz brilliance. All the earth goes up in flames of living, moving, shimmering fire.

So you turn around, to get the whole picture, and to your surprise see everything behind you shot blankly with a stark, flat glare. Face into the sun, and light infuses every shape with steady, dazzling beauty. Turn your back on it, and the light makes the same shapes look hard and dead and dull.

You know what I’m talking about. What I wonder is if you’ve ever stopped while watching the green explosion of light in front of you and thought about the theological implications that accompany this phenomenon. Maybe I’m weird like that. But all I can think as I stand in the light on a spring afternoon is that I want my face always turned towards truth. It’s there whether I face it or not, but the world with truth at my back is flat and ugly and strange, while the world of truth on my face is stunning in richness, vibrant in everlasting comeliness...

So next time you go for a walk and see the sun filling everything between you and it with living fire, let creation leave you with no excuse, and turn your heart again to face the One from whom all truth must come. Turn your face to the Light and revel in His beauty.

“…The Lord make His face to shine upon you, and give you His peace…”