naught be all else to me, save that thou art:
thou my best thought, by day or by night,
waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.
---trad. Irish
“The room lit up when she walked in.” You can picture it—I bet you can—from a scene in a
movie, or maybe even from a lucky moment in real life. That moment, the rare
one, when the stir of the cocktail party crowd stills, the sea of tuxedoed and
pearl necklaced extras parts, and the one glides across the room, lighting her own path, a hundred eyes following
her. You can tell from the glow
that she is the leading lady. You’ve probably experienced this effect irl
(in real life) as well—the way some people
seem to light up a room with their very presence, making everyone else around
them lighter, too. We’re like moths, in those moments, drawn to that
light.
In this beloved Irish hymn, the text speaks of God
metaphorically. Among those metaphors is God’s presence as light. Not that God brings light, or that knowing God creates light, or that God helps us see light, although all of those may be true and are
undoubtedly good. No, in this text, God’s presence is, itself, light. When God is my light,
what is illuminated in my life?
Things I had yet to notice, gifts or strengths yet to be exercised? Hurts and
fears I had hidden away, in the dark, even from myself? Is, perhaps, the full
beauty of my being illuminated in the presence of God, expressed as light?
If my life lights up when God walks in…what then?
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