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After what seems like weeks of rain, I sit at my desk, bathed in sunshine. I love it. The colors of my lawn and garden, so gray yesterday, glow today, shimmering in contrasting colors. Everything seems better—my mood, my marriage, my plans for the future. Not that any of these things were bad yesterday—but they seem even better today.
What is it about sunshine that brightens (pun intended) my life? Physiologically, we all need to be out in the sun, particularly we vitamin-D-deprived Alaskans. Even babies turn toward bright lights (remembering Beings from their recent past?). We are drawn to light—light spaces, bright countenances, moonbeams, sparklers. We find joy in the Light of the world (John 8:12) and are counseled to let our own light shine before men, so they may also turn to the Light (Matt 5:16).
An important part of being followers of Christ is learning how to walk in His light. Making and keeping promises to Him helps us to keep on that lighted path. As we do this, we bring light into our faces, our homes, our relationships. Everything looks better, purer. In his book, The Great Divorce, C. S. Lewis writes that in heaven, the good man’s past is transformed, so that his forgiven sins and remembered sorrows become sacred. His agonies become glories. “And that is why,” Lewis concludes, “the Blessed will say ’We have never lived anywhere except in Heaven.”
This is exactly why Christ’s tells us that “His yoke is easy and His burden, light” (that word again). Not only does our connection with Him literally change the way we see, and even the way we look, but the way we feel. We don’t have to be burdened with sin, with fear, with worry. Instead, we trust in the Lord. We let His lamp guide our footsteps (Psalms 119:105). As with the Israelites of old, He is our pillar of fire as he guards us in our wilderness.
A beloved family story tells how the light of the Lord protected my grandfather’s childhood community. In the mid-1880’s, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had sent members from Utah to establish several small communities just south of the U.S.-Mexican border. During the Mexican Revolution, these communities found themselves caught between fighting forces. In 1916, the defeated revolutionary, Pancho Villa, was furious with the United States’ involvement in his loss and determined to kill every white man in the area. After a murderous guerilla attack on a U.S. garrison at Columbus, NM, he headed straight for my grandfather’s town, Colonia Dublan, determined to annihilate all its inhabitants, and burn it to the ground.
A local reported the oncoming danger to the townspeople, and the bishop (a resident church leader) called all the men together to discuss whether to defend themselves or to trust in the Lord. From my grandfather’s history: “Soon after we had gathered together and a prayer had been offered, the bishop stood on his feet and told the body of men to go home and gather their families around them and not to turn on even one light in their homes that night and God would protect them. This we did and there was not a single light in any house that night. We all went to bed and went to sleep feeling secure that God would protect us.”
Months later, the community learned what had happened that fateful night. Villa and his band of 200 came right up to the edge of town, planning on blood and mayhem. Suddenly, Villa saw every building in town light up simultaneously. Startled, Villa gave the command to stop. A nearby general questioned why. As my grandfather tells it: “Villa answered, ‘Do you not see all the lights in town? If we go in there, we will surely go into a trap.’ The general replied that he did not see any light. Villa became angry and said that they would surely be destroyed if they went in the town, and he gave the command to go around. We were very thankful to our Heavenly Father for taking care of us.”
Our Father, through Christ, provides the way for us to have light in our homes every day, and, on rare Alaskan sunny afternoons, outside our homes as well. Our gracious God pours down sunshine for our bodies and sunshine for the soul. For that, I am grateful.
Kristin Fry is a local amateur musician who loves to sing in The Messiah whenever she gets the chance. Would you like participate in the Messiah performance? All are welcome! See the Mat-Su Messiah Facebook page or bit.ly/matsu-messiah for rehearsal and performance dates, times and information. The more the merrier! Kristin is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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