Living in the Light

This morning, the gray, sullen blanket of clouds that have been weighing us down in Atchison for the past week finally lifted, and the sun has burst upon us. The leaves of the plant in my window sill were literally glowing, and I could feel its joy in undertaking photosynthesis.

According to Wikipedia, “Photosynthesis is a process used by plants and other organisms to convert light energy into chemical energy that can later be released to fuel the organisms' activities.” It occurs to me that humans engage in a spiritual photosynthesis, for we take the light of Christ and convert it into energy that fuels our activities of loving and serving each other.

At times we experience “power surges” when, like my plant, we glow with the light we absorb from Christ. Paul experienced this glow after he was literally knocked off his horse by Christ’s light on the road to Damascus. That light fueled his fervent preaching and writing for the remainder of his earthly life.

Jesus told us plainly, “I am the light of the world.” Like the light from the sun, this spiritual light is freely available to us; we just need to develop the personal infrastructure (primarily, time set aside for prayer and other forms of contemplation) to plug into it. Then, along with Gerard Manley Hopkins, we can proclaim, “The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil….”