Sometimes it amazes me how unceasingly the Lord’s truths filter down into our world.  For me, the natural sun helps me to understand it better than anything else I know.  The  sun reaches everywhere in a universal way–with light rays–but depending on the receptacle, it appears to have almost infinite variety.  Light on a table at dusk in the tropics vs. light dancing in the trees in a northern winter–same light, but such a different picture!  And of course, without it we would die instantly.

It is comforting for me to observe that one can avoid light completely–by never going outside during the day, or by going into a cave or a basement, for instance–but it’s pretty hard to do consistently.  Virtually everyone is exposed to light, regularly.  

Which is why I’m always thrilled when I hear a shaft of light–a thought, a line from a song, a comment–that seems (to me) to express a pure truth.  It reminds me how infinite are the Lord’s ways–and I admire the person for figuring it out, probably without the Writings like I have. 

Recently our (Methodist) pastor said, in the pulpit, “I don’t know about you, but I think heaven is a pretty busy place.”  I was awash with admiration.  How did she figure that out?

Ellis Paul, a folk singer-songwriter, in the song God’s Promise, expresses so simply something that took me a long time to figure out.  I used to think (subconsciously) that if I followed all the rules, life would be easy.  And I still think it’s eaSIER than if I wasn’t trying to follow the rules.  But no, “ease” was never the deal with the Lord.  Heavenly happiness, yes.  Ease, no. Ellis figured this out with a few words of poetry, set to music:

“[I] didn’t promise you
Skies painted blue
All colored flowers all your days through
I didn’t promise you
Sun with no rain
Joys without sorrows
Peace without pain

All that I promise
Is strength for this day
Rest for my worker and light on your way
I give you truth when you need it
My help from above
My undying friendship, My unfailing love…”

Yes.

Recently I read the Beatitudes and asked the Lord how He is speaking to us today, and speaking to those not reading the Beatitudes.  The answers came to me so quickly that I suspected I had some spirits helping me.  

“Rejoice, and be exceeding glad!”  “Don’t worry be happy!”

“For great is your reward in heaven.”  “What goes around comes around.”

“For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”  “Many have gone before you.”

What other phrases or songs or gems of wisdom have you heard in the world lately? 

“…the fact that spiritual heat, being love, produces natural heat in human beings to such an extent as to fire and inflame their faces and limbs, can serve as a proof that the fire of the natural sun arose from no other source than the fire of the spiritual sun, which is Divine love.” (Conjugial Love 380)