Come Into the Light

I have always loved light.  The dark doesn’t scare me, really, unless I’m going through a haunted house and I’m not sure what is going to jump out at me.  The light soothes me, even artificial light.  But I LOVE natural light.

When I’m outside, doing anything, and the sun appears from behind a cloud, I lift my face, my heart and my soul to the sun.  Nothing feels better on my face than a ray of sunshine.  I feel as though I milk it for all its worth.  I will stay in that position until the sun goes back in or I get hot.  Even if I’m inside and the sun shines through a window I will turn to the sun.

I think that is why I love photography so much.  I love capturing the light and some of my favorite pictures are because the light was just perfect.  I envy photographers who can use settings and software to get that image, it seems I am only interested if it happens naturally.

I’ve told this story before so forgive me if you’ve heard it.  I was at a time in my life at a crossroads.  Life was beating me up and then down.  I didn’t know where to turn.  Both of my parents had died.  My sister and brother were dealing with life as well.  I had friends I could turn to but I needed a whole new path of life.  A friend had invited me to visit for the weekend.  While visiting she had encouraged me to move to her small town.  While I was visiting I made up my mind that moving might be the thing I needed.  I stayed through the weekend with the intention of applying for some jobs locally.  Before I headed out I made up my mind to go to Mass.  I got into church but there was only one guy there and he left.  I realized later that they didn’t have Mass that day.  So, I took the time to pray.  I found myself a pew and started talking to God.  It wasn’t long before I started talking out loud.  Maybe I was screaming at God.  I might have paced up and down the aisle.  Finally, I gave up.  I told God I couldn’t do it anymore, that He was going to have to take over.  I was tired.  I was sad.  I did not know which way to turn.  I went and sat back down in my pew.  Just then, a ray of light came through the stained glass window.  It hit my pew.  It hit me.  It didn’t hit any other pew.  I took this as a sign.  I think this was a sign that my challenge had been accepted by God and He was going to be happy to take over my broken life.

I’ve told this story so many times.  My husband gets mad when I say I was smacked in the face by the Holy Spirit, but that’s the way it felt.  It was so profound.

Any time I walk into church I look for the pew that the sun lit for me.  When I go there I feel closer to God, to the Holy Spirit.

By the way, I got a job that very day and I moved shortly thereafter.  You can’t tell me that wasn’t God.  I know it was.

The other day I went into the church I love and noticed the sun shining on a pew.  It was one pew up from where I usually sit.  I was drawn to that pew.  But I didn’t go there.  I stopped 3 or 4 pews behind it.  I felt like there might be someone who came into church who needed to be touched (or slapped as the case might be), by the Holy Spirit.  I decided to sit back and watch it happen.  A little bit of sun fell on my shoulders so I knew that the Spirit was there with me that day.  I pray that those who need the Spirit will realize She’s the one resting on their shoulders.