The Healing Grace of Inner Light: Part 2

Ambassadors of God’s Inner Light

God has placed the Light of His Holy Spirit within each of us in order to empower us in partnership with Him to live into His image, reflecting His healing Light & Grace outward into the beauty of life given. Since God is present in all forms of life, in many ways, all forms of life serve as ambassadors for God, reminding us of His grace-filled presence with us even when we are in seasons of suffering. We only need to recognize that reality in order to be moved towards healing & step out of suffering & into beauty given to us by our steadfast loving God. When we are experiencing seasons of suffering be it: physical illness & pain, grief & loss, poverty, the pain of a broken relationship, natural disasters such as fires or floods that take everything we cherish away, injustice & prejudice of any kind, etc., we can lose our vision & balance. As we all know to some degree, suffering demands our attention. It is easy to lose hope & to forget that God is right there with us when we are distracted by suffering. Yet somewhere in the quiet silence of the darkness of night, somewhere deep in our heart, when it is only God & us & all the noise has ceased, we know God is there with us, even though we cannot hear Him or see Him, don’t we?

There are reminders all around us that can awaken us to our Creator & heal us from seasons of suffering & bring us into the seasons of beauty given by God. Our challenge is to be able to recognize God’s presence when He reveals himself to us. God’s Light shines in the darkness & the darkness, no matter how dark, can never overcome it. These reminders that bring us from suffering into seasons of beauty always reflect the very image of God into which we are created. His Light is often revealed to us through creation, as well as, through gifts of light we reflect to one another. Moments of external visual light or human love extended to us can awaken us to internal insight of the inner Light of the Holy Spirit & with that, we step out of seasons of suffering & into seasons of beauty. God’s light can come to us through the wind as God’s breath, through the water reminding us that we are God’s children claimed at our baptism, through the beauty of the sunrise & sunset, through butterflies who remind us of the transformation into new life & through the gift of tiny fireflies, spots of light randomly lighting up the darkness reminding us God is out there in the darkness waiting for us to see Him & come to him. In addition to the gifts of creation that awaken the inner light that God empowers us with, we receive & are awakened to God’s healing grace of inner light when we accept, receive, & extend comfort, understanding, acceptance, forgiveness & love. It is then, that we feel & recognize the healing gentle touch of our creator that awakens our inner Light & brings beauty to us & to others as we reflect the healing grace of God’s inner light. Though suffering is part of this life we have been graciously given, we do not need to stay there. Beauty awaits us. All we need to do is step into the Light & reflect & receive God’s healing grace. To quote the poet Amanda Gorman: “When day comes, we step out of the shade, aflame & unafraid. The new dawn blooms as we free it, for there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it, if only we’re brave enough to be it.” AMEN

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