light

In the beginning
In the beginning
Before oceans and sunsets
Before iguanas
Before color and time…when all there was was darkness—

In the beginning
God created the heavens and the earth.
Before laughter and tears and hunger.
Before there was ever fighting and war.
Before there was madness
And taxes. And coffee.
Before us—
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

He made everything you can see—
And some things you can’t.
He separated the earth from the heavens and the sea from the dry land.
He created grass and tulips and daisies and cacti and palm trees.

Then, he created two great lights—
the sun and the moon—
to shine down over the earth.
The greater one, the sun, to reign during the day
and the lesser, the moon, overseeing the night.
God set these lights in the heavens to light the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness.
To separate light from dark.

But he didn’t stop there.
He created horses and eagles and koala bears—
and over all these,
As their master,
He created people—
Man and woman—
You and me—
Created us in his image, to be like him.
To live in this world of light separated from darkness.

The created walked with the Creator in his world.
They walked beside him, with him.
Until the day they chose to believe a lie—
a clever lie, shrouded in darkness—
And chose this lie over the light, over the Creator—
Chose to hide themselves in darkness rather than walk in light.

Now the created—
Those fashioned by the Creator of light,
to walk in the light—
Those created to be children of light—
were lost in the darkness.

But being lost was just the beginning.
Walking in darkness was just the beginning.
In the darkness there is stumbling.
Falling. Pain.
There is jealousy and anger and murder and death.
Lies, deceit of all kinds. War.
Hatred.
Abuse.
These things, and so many more, these things of the dark—
Thrived under the cover of darkness.
And the Created ones
having chosen darkness over light
were powerless to fight against them.

But—although it could not be seen,
the Creator of light had a plan—
A plan to bring light back to the world of darkness.
There was a plan—
To illuminate the darkness.

O come, o come Emmanuel.
We are lost in the darkness and cannot find our way home.

In the beginning—
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things were made;
without him nothing was made that has been made.
In him was life, and that life was the light—
the light of all people.

The light shines in the darkness
and the darkness cannot overcome it.
People walking in darkness have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness, a light has dawned.

To shepherds—angels wrapped in light.
To wisemen—a guiding star.
To all—a baby king lying in a manger.

The light—the true light—
That illuminates and frees us from darkness—
Has come.

things i am thankful for...

fall.

sweaters.

football (especially the fact that UM won & MSU lost yesterday...sorry derek).

paris...and the part of me that permanently resides there.

my little people (all of whom i miss dearly today).

the rest of my family (whom i miss as well).

friends, the ones i see every day and the ones i don't see near enough.

grace.

'miracle on 34th street' and other movies that lift my spirits.

books that change my way of looking at the world.

pumpkin pies that turned out perfectly.

sleep.

the small mercy to learn from a mistake.

fluffy pillows.

the desire to grow and be more.

that i got to shop with gram one last time.

that i don't have everything i thought i wanted.

that i don't have everything i still think i want.

a theory

i have some theories about life. some of you have heard them from time to time.

the most popular being the Happy Plane/Sad Plane theory, which basically says that any plane taking off from Pearson Airport is a happy plane, and therefore i wish to be on it, and any plane landing is, of course, a sad plane, since it means that the journey would be over.

on my way to work this morning, i looked up, expecting to see some happy plane on its way to some ambiguous happy place, when i saw that it was a Zoom Airline plane...the same airline that i flew to paris last year. it reminded me that i am not going to paris this year, but also brought up the tension we sometimes feel between joy and happiness.

i'll have to write more on this thought later, as the difference between the two is more complex than happy/sad plane difference.

just so you know, though, it is 17 degrees and cloudy in paris today. not that i'm keeping track.