This morning, I was running on the local Greenway trail when I noticed something I haven’t before. Much of the path is shaded but there are areas where you come from the shade into full sunlight. I noticed today that as I passed from the shadow into the sunlight, the light was powerful and it hurt my eyes. It was hard to see and I wanted to go back into the darkness because it was easier than to deal with the sunlight. For a brief moment, the story of the Transfiguration came into my mind as I experienced that light on the path.
We are to be children of the light, and we are meant to walk in the light, and yet we always seem to be groping along in the darkness. The creative helps us to emerge into the light, that awful, awesome light that the disciples saw on the mountain of transfiguration, and which the Hebrew children saw on the face of Moses when he had been talking to God on Mount Sinai.
If we are blind and foolish, so were the disciples. They simply failed to understand what the light was about – these three disciples who were closest to the Light than anyone. They wanted to trap Jesus (and Elijah and Moses) in tabernacles, to tame them, to label them and many of us have tried to do the same ever since.
The light cannot be controlled but it can be enjoyed. The other part of the light experience this morning was the longer I spent in the light, the easier it was to see. I adjusted to the light and it didn’t burn anymore.
Something to think about.
The Timothy Blog 