Don’t look out the window. I know it’s cold and gray. Instead, picture this…
You step outside your front door and walk into the warm sunshine. As soon as you leave the shadows, you feel the heat of the sun on your skin and you feel the light upon your face. It’s actually so bright that you have to close your eyes. Your other senses are awakened. You can now hear the birds in the trees. They each sing their own song in their own way, just as God created us all to use our unique talents. It should be a discordant mess—the varying pitches and melodies—but somehow it works and all the variations of all the songs by all the different birds makes the summery day even brighter.
With your eyes closed and the sun warming your face, the slight breeze brings the aroma of flowers and fresh-cut grass to your nostrils. You breathe it in slowly and deliberately. It then races quickly throughout your entire body, following the pathways of the blood vessels until you are absorbing a sweet perfume throughout your entire body. Not only is your physical body stimulated but the neurons within your brain use the smells, the sounds, and the warmth as keys to unlock hidden memories and forgotten stories. Our minds are large castles with forgotten chambers and secret alcoves. Those of us who are only a little older have allowed the dust to settle in those rooms and we have misplaced our keys, but the smallest things—like the sunshine—can lead us back.
So here we are. Standing in the sunshine, our eyes closed, absorbing the summer sun through our skin, listening to the singing of the birds, basking in the aroma of flowers. We have adjusted somewhat and so we open our eyes slowly to see the emerald leaves breathe and flutter in the trees around us. The birds flit from one branch to the next. The flowers burst with color as the butterflies and bees dance a ballet above them. The skies are blue and ethereal clouds curl ever-so-slowly above us. It is by any definition a beautiful, beautiful day. The sun is shining brightly and we feel it in every single fiber of our minds and bodies.
Now you can look out your window.
Perhaps our daydream has disappeared because it is not sunny. Perhaps it is cold. Perhaps it is gray. Perhaps we have even opened the windows and have allowed the cold and the gray inside.
But sometimes perhaps, we have forgotten that the “sun” is within us and goes wherever we are. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Could it be that the warmth of the sunshine, the singing of the birds, the perfume of the flowers, and the light upon our faces is not dependent upon our outward circumstances?
Look again outside your window. That’s not you.
You have been given your own source of warmth and light.
by Mark Bishop