A Shining Light

Yesterday was the first day of fall, the fall equinox. When I just looked it up, I found out that the hours of daylight and dark are equally matched, 12 and 12, and that the aurora borealis will have its "greatest frequency of geomagnetic storms," resulting in a spectacular show of color – pink, green, yellow, blue and violet, orange and white. This past week we also had the Harvest Moon – they say the moon was full on the 19^th, but it looked full to me on the 17^th and 18^th also – it was such a bright moon, and as I read I discovered that’s why it has the name it does – farmers who needed to work after dark to finish their bountiful harvest this time of the year would use the light of the moon to see their crops.

When seasons change I always have a feeling of renewal. It’s as if the shift in the weather gives me a shift in perspective, even when nothing that I can see has changed in the world of my life around me. Fall has always been a favorite time of the year for me, although I do love the other seasons also. But there is something about the light of fall, the feeling in the air, the way the sun hits the earth with golden light and the way that the air itself seems lighter and cooler and fresher somehow. And the fact that the season is changing is something that we can feel and smell and we can taste that taste in the foods that are in season now – apples and squash and Brussels sprouts, pears and Italian prune plums and Muscat grapes. There’s an earthiness, a richness of taste and color, a depth to the very air itself.

For some reason this year I am not thinking of the past in the way that I usually do with the changing seasons. As I wrote that I knew the reason why – my life has changed so much and is changing even now, and I know that the past is truly the past. It is not that I want to forget everything I ever knew – there is always value in the experiences of our lives and with God there is nothing that is wasted. It is just that what I have now in my life with Jesus is so much more than I had then, and I know there is more to come.

2 Corinthians 4:6 tells us, “For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’" who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” When I read that passage now, something was highlighted to me that I had never really thought of before although it is something that is probably obvious. But scripture can be like that – we see things at different times, and it is the work of the Holy Spirit to help us to see what God wants us to see for a specific reason and season in our lives. What I saw this time as I read that passage is that it is “the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’ – the same God who spoke and created light in the very beginning. As I read that passage now I hear an echo of my favorite scripture, Ephesians 2:8, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” It is the God who said let light shine out of darkness who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ – it is His grace that has shone in our hearts and given us the knowledge of the saving faith that brings us light in the darkness. His grace that has taken the past of our lives and turned them into something new.

Blessings,

Jannie Susan