Two of my friends, Rebecka and Josie, sent me quotes within hours of each other. Quotes about light. When friends listen so intently that they hear what you say and what you don't say and then say the words you left rattling around inside you - you know you are loved; you know you are held by a power greater than just Fate.
Here's what they shared....
"Burn through. Become the light. You are not done yet." Iain Thomas
"Some people reflect light; some deflect it, you by some miracle seem to collect it." Mark Danielewski (punctuation his)
"Light cannot be captured; it can only be reflected." Physics professor
So thankful.
I needed their light - as July approaches. I wish it wouldn't.
I continue re-read Grace Disguised, the book Tracy Waychoff sent me. The final chapter contains this paragraph, and when I read it today on my lunch hour, my heart stopped searching for a few hours.
The author writes about losing his mother, his wife and his four year old daughter in a car wreck caused by a drunk driver. The entire book is about finding a pathway or following a pathway through grief from any kind of loss.
"The accident itself bewilders me as much today as it did three years ago. Much good has come from it, but all the good in world will never make the accident itself good. It remains a horrible, tragic and evil event to me. A million people could be helped as a result of the tragedy, but that would not be enough to explain and justify it. .... I do not believe that I lost three members of my family in order that I might change for the better, raise three healthy children, or write a book. I still want them back, and I always will, no matter what happens as a result of their deaths." (Sittser, 199) I feel like this is our story; I could insert our details and leave every word the same, except I would never use the word accident.
Our pathway, those of us connected to and by Taylor Renee, seems to be sharing light, her light, our light, God's light. I love the line in her blog from last summer when she wrote that she traveled around Oklahoma and Texas facilitating cheer camps and "pouring light" into those girls.
I love that Josie sent me the quotes about light and that 1 Thessalonians 5:5 is tattooed on her ankle. "You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness."
I am moved by Rebecka's perceptiveness.
They remind me that even though evil walked through the door almost eleven months ago and took something very, very precious from us -we do not belong in the dark; we do not belong in the grip of evil.
We have to keep burning. We are not done yet. These are Josie's words; these are Rebecka's words. These are Taylor's words and these are scripture..
I am just repeating them, clinging to them, praying I can live up to them, thanking them for them - the words and the hearts.
#golighttheworld