The Healing Grace of Inner Light: Part 1

The Inextinguishable Light

We read in the Holy Bible that at the beginning of time God created all of life & declared it good. In addition to creating the animals, plants, insects, etc., God created each one of us with a body, a mind, & a spirit. The spirit is that indwelling component of our being that is the vital life animating force for the body & the mind. God created human beings in His very image & empowered them with His Holy Spirit so that they would live in partnership & covenant with him, reflecting out His light, love & grace through their living. Reflecting God’s image & light is the Divine purpose of human existence. Since no one has ever seen a visual image of God, when we are speaking of being created in the image of God, we are speaking of the image of God’s character. By the power of His Holy Spirit, God planted within each human being His inner light to reflect His love, beauty & grace & declared all of His creation as good.

However, as good as our life is, there is no question that we all experience both beauty & suffering in our lives. The truth that suffering is part of life does not necessarily mean that life is not good. It simply means that is the way life is, & regardless of which place we may find ourselves in, whether be it in periods of beauty or periods of suffering, our whole being, body, mind, & spirit will be affected & God, according to the writer of Psalm 139, will be walking with us, which is a very good thing. As the writer of the Psalm 139 tells us, God is present in all living things & is inescapable. Even if we forget He is there, or try to block Him, or don’t recognize His presence with us, He is always with us in this life & beyond. He will never leave us alone & in that reality is God’s promise & hope for the healing beauty & goodness of all creation. All we need to do is trust in God & in His promise & we will be able to move safely through the suffering & shadows that comes to us in life & into the light & beauty awaiting us.

Clouds & shadows can move in when we least expect them & cover & dim the light. Where there is light, there must be shadows, & where there are shadows there must be light. The good news is that the shadows that come with suffering in our lives can never extinguish God’s Holy light that resides within each of us. Though we are affected when the clouds cover the sun, we still know deep in our hearts that the sun is there even when we don’t see it or feel it, don’t we? As stated in John’s Gospel; “All things came into being through God & what has come into being was life & the life was the light of all people.” In faith & hope, believing in the promises of God, “we can believe in the sun even when it is not shining, we can believe in love even when we feel it not; & we can believe in God even when He is silent.”

~Posted by Rev Kathryn Bindig, MDiv. MS; Pastoral Care Minister with assistance from Rich Muscatello; Director of Business Development & Strategy