In the Light

 

I walked into the room and had to laugh. There, on the table, were my tulips - which I had just arranged that morning and fluffed to look full and bouquet-like - all leaning hard to the left where the sun was pouring in the window. They looked like they were simply starved for the light. Which is probably not that surprising in the winter months of north-west Europe. Their colors also shone all the more luminously and stunning, with their yellow and orange hues, the petals almost transparent.

The High School Play opens in 2 days, and I’m in love (yet again) with the cast, the crew, and the overall production. From my “perch” backstage I get to prepare the various props, pin flowers to lapels, and give encouraging fist bumps before reminding students to remove their masks and sweep out onto the stage with volume. Then I peer through the flats and smile as the characters from the script grow transparent, and the students I love shine luminously and stunning, complete with their grayed hair, self-grown mustaches, and cucumber sandwiches. 

And then I wonder what I look like in the light. My Bible study is deep into 1 John right now, and these verses from Week 1 are still rattling in my mind: "God is light. ... If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1: 5b, 7). I don't want to be a liar, comfortable with my facade, because if I live like that, I will continually avoid the light for fear of being exposed. I want to be like my flowers, transparent for the true light to shine through me! I guess that is only possible if I remove my mask of outward behavior and keep leaning into and craving the true light.