PUT YOUR FACE IN THE SUNLIGHT

From Susan Hillis:

Tonight (Sunday) I am lying in bed feeling sad and bleak about the state of our family.  I must arise and go to You, Lord.  And I read this from Isaiah 60 in the Message:

"Get out of bed...Put your face in the sunlight.  God's bright glory has risen for you.  The whole earth is wrapped in darkness...but God rises on you, His sunrise glory breaks over you....LOOK UP (first)!  LOOK AROUND (second)!...Watch as they approach you;  your sons coming from great distances; your daughters carried...when you see them coming you'll smile -- big smiles!  Your heart will swell!  ...all those people returning...pouring in...loaded with gold and frankincenses, and preaching the praises of God."   

Lord, I praise You that this is true of many of our children.  I pray You will make it true for all of them!

And I remember.  Sunday one week ago laying down quietly on soft carpet, before a wall of windows in a back corner of our church.  I turned my face toward the Sun-bathed window that concentrated radiant warmth on my face.  My eyes, shut tightly, saw the bright yellow glare of penetrating light, which extinguished all the visible darkness of eyes shut tight behind closed lids.  I had but to rotate my head 180 degrees in the opposite direction, and the darkness behind my closed eyes was unopposed by Light.  I saw nothingness.  "Live turning your face towards the warmth and brightness of Light" was the lesson I understood.  And at once I rotated my head back again towards the Sun's illuminating warmth and fullness.

Now, this Monday morning, I see that this day You have made (Ps 118), You intend it to be hemmed in from start to finish with Your light.  "This is the day the Lord has made.  Let us rejoice and be glad in it." (v. 24)  "The Lord is God. He has made His light to shine upon us." (v. 27) We choose today, Lord, to turn our faces towards your marvelous Light, for this day to be hemmed in, at its beginning and its end, by our own giving of thanks to You, as Your steadfast love endures forever (Ps 118, first and last verse).  And we remember Jesus, who for the joy set before Him, endured (Heb 12).  Open our eyes to this joy - make it visible, tangible, to us today.