A wise old woman in Devine, aka my friend Nancy, told me this Sunday, “When I fall down, God picks me up. Always does.” She wasn’t trying to be philosophical, or whatever that big word is. She was just stating the facts, and she sounded just as sure as the sunshine shining down on us while she hugged me at the door. I tried to coax her out of the house to sit in the lawn chairs under the beautiful sunshine, but she reminded me that she had a beautiful warm fire right there inside her house. True enough, I guess a flickering fire is just as pretty and warm as the sunshine on your face.
Light is really something else. There are so many completely different and equally pretty lights.
Candlelight is another. I’ll never forget when I came home from a late-night exhausting college class one night, and my husband had our dining room set up like a scene straight out of a romantic movie. Candles glowing at the center of the table next to red roses, and a beautiful dinner with our favorite food (crab and buttery corn/potatoes in a boil). I was about 7 months pregnant at that time and pretty miserable after a long day of classes, but I felt light as a feather when I walked in the door that night and dropped my keys.
Then there are the stars. Those pretty little things that seem like a million miles away. You can’t touch them, and you’ve got no control over those stars, but they are always right there when you want to make a wish.
Perhaps one of the prettiest lights though, is the light in a loved one’s eyes. Whether it be grandma talking about 57 years of marriage and hoping for 60 as she lovingly looks at him and smiles, or a little 3 year old, full of bright ideas and hugs so tight they touch your heart.
And yet, there’s still one light that looks a little different from all the rest. The little light on the inside that picks you up when you fall…and always does. Like some wise man wrote, you can always see a light in the dark (unless you have your eyes closed).