As I sat reflecting one morning I was brought back to a very early time in my life. I couldn’t have been more than five or six years old and the Christmas season was upon us. I remember receiving a gift from my parents then that I had become fascinated with. I believe it was called a View-Master. It came with a small number of disks, each one containing pictures all along the edge of it. The disk you would insert into the View-Master. You could then go from one picture to another simply by pulling down the lever on the side. And so I recalled a day that I stood on the front porch of the old three story building we lived in then. It was a mild winter morning as I remember it, and I had brought my View-Master outside with me. I wasn’t out there very long when I lifted it up to look through. Suddenly I was amazed. The pictures weren’t as I had seen them before. The children, their clothing, their smiles and their sleds - these were all the same. But the light that shone all around them was different than I saw it at other times - so different that it was like no other light that I had ever seen. Prior to this I was taught about God and about heaven at the Catholic school where I attended. Also I’d heard grown-ups speak on these subjects every so often. However, now there didn’t seem to be any doubt in my young mind that presently I was experiencing something from that world above. With all my heart and soul I wanted to somehow make my way into the picture that I was so captivated by; and if I could have I would have.
As the years passed I would every now and then remember that day. By the time I came into my early teens I believe I had put it behind me; but by the time that I had reached my mid to late teens I fell into the kind of company that wasn’t very interested in a Light not of this world. In fact, this is what they chose to hide from. But I would be lying if I told you that I hadn’t become of the very same mind as them. We all felt the same itch - an itch that we believed needed satisfying. And so alcohol, gang fights with rival neighborhoods, illicit sexual activity and sins of all sorts were the kind of things that colored our dark world. To add, it was the sixties - a decade of more change and confusion than young people knew what to do with.
But time does fly, like they say. And so it wasn’t long and I was out of the army and into my early twenties. This meant that all of my buddies and I could now hit the local taverns and lounges instead of drinking illegally at Hale Park. But none of us seemed to really know what we were doing, or where we were heading, back in those years. There was a terrible lack of vision among us. I believe that was the reason we asked each other this question from time to time. Hey, (the word that proceeded almost every line we spoke) if you had one wish what would you wish for? You wouldn’t want me to tell you some of the answers that were given, usually followed up by drunken laughter from everyone within earshot. Now understand that back in those days I was as wild and full of adventure as the best of them. But if ever that question came my way, I would always give the same answer, drunk or sober, and meaning every word of it. I simply told them that I’d wish I would go to heaven when I died. The drunken laughter never followed, but there would always fall a hush. As sinful a life as I lead, it was spiritual matters that seemed to be rooted in the deepest parts of me; it was that way as long as I could remember. I just never knew what to do about them. Quite possibly the light that I had experienced as a young boy had anchored itself in the pit of my soul, with no intentions of loosening its grip. All that I know for sure is that my thoughts were often far above this world. I loved my friends and enjoyed their company. Yet on the other hand, it was as though I had my own secret life apart from them.
Then there came the day - April 21st, 1973, the day before Easter Sunday. There was a knock at the door in the early afternoon. Two friends stood on my front porch. I had already known about their conversion to Christianity. When I stepped out they went on to tell me - and in no uncertain terms - that the Lord had sent them to get me. Prior to this they gave me a book to read; it was a book about biblical prophecy. I was impressed with what I had read and told them so. But I also let them know that I still had questions. They told me that they had come to bring me to their pastor, who they believed could answer my questions. I went with them, hoping with all my heart that they would be right, seeing that I was in desperate need of a true spiritual awakening. And thanks be to God, it was on that day that I got what I had hoped for. At the end of the evening the four of us dropped to our knees and I was lead in the sinner’s prayer.
On the very next morning I went with my friends to the church where they attended. It was Easter Sunday. I remember it being a beautifully bright and sunny day. The people that I met that morning had to be the nicest and friendliest people that I had ever been introduced to. Aside from certain movies I’d seen at one time or another, I never thought that anyone could actually be the way these people were. From that day on my life had become a changed one, and I was attending my newfound church every Sunday. Taverns, lounges and loose women had no more place in me. For the first time since I was a child I felt clean again, as though I were washed with waters not of this world, and that in fact was exactly what was happening. The light that I had experienced as a boy had now returned. But it was different; it was within me. And as the weeks and the months and the years went by, I could sense the increase of It.
To the best of my knowledge the scriptures declare that God is but two things. In the fourth chapter of 1st John we are told that God is Love. And in the first chapter of that same epistle we are told that God is Light. Love is the attribute that we believers play up; nothing wrong with that. Though seldom if ever do we hear that God is Light. Speaking for myself, I can’t help but seeing the Love that God is, and the Light that God is, as being a part of one another - Love being of the Light, and the Light coming from His Love.
The Light of God! What can be said about it from the lips of us lowly mortals? Can we come near to doing it justice? I’m sure we cannot. But we are His children, filled with His Spirit, one may say. Truer words were never spoken. But in a letter that Paul once wrote to the Corinthians we are told that this Treasure, as great as It is, rests in earthen vessels; this being so that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. And so we can never speak of the Light that indwells us with words that can truly capture its greatness. If we could, would it not then be us who would receive the glory for it?
Great is the Light of God. But presently the world is so dark. If a list was to be written of all of the troubles that have come upon the earth today, then surely the writer would become so disheartened that they would have to set down their pen after not too long a time. Yet here is the Good News! As children of the Creator we do not have to let ourselves be overtaken by the darkness, or shaken by the thought of it - not when our inheritance is Light. And it is a Light for us to walk in and to revel in, so that even in these times, the fears that are all around us, and those that are yet to come, will not have their way in us. For the Light that God is will raise us high above this earth, if we will only keep our vision raised unto the heavens.
Paul once told the Philippian believers that in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, they shined as lights in the world. But why likened unto lights? It is because they were born of The Light - the Light who is God. It goes all the way back to the creation story. Here it is repeatedly said that all things - be it plant or animal - brought forth after their own kind. And so even with the Creator of all that has been created does that law apply. For it is by His Spirit that He who is Light gives birth to light - even to the spirit of a man - bringing him forth in the likeness of Himself.
In the epistle of James 1:17-18 we read, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth…”. I would have to say that one of my very favorite titles for God is the Father of lights. But exactly what type of lights is James speaking of? I have no doubt that he is speaking of the lights that all of God’s children are. Either this or he is speaking of unintelligent lights, such as the stars. But we all know that the Father only gives birth to what long ago He created in His image.
Once, many years ago, while I sat before the Lord in silent meditation, I believe that He showed me something. I believe that He showed me His Spirit being as a vast, even infinite ocean - an ocean filled with Light. There were no shores; neither was there a floor to It. There was only the surface. These are the waters that the believer is baptized into. Gifts are given at this time; they are given in accordance with His will for our lives. But His baptism of us goes not far beneath the surface of the waters. However, from there He desires to bring us further down. He longs for us to visit Him in the depths of the waters. The depths that we come to in Him will always be in direct proportion to how we pursue Him on earth. At some point the believer can become abandoned to Him. Some will descend further still, where their lives become hidden away in His own. Still, the waters never end. Even as eternal life has no barriers before it, nor does a kingdom everlasting, it is like these that the waters continue on; the further that we descend into them, the greater the Light becomes. But do not imagine the kind of light that we are familiar with on this earth. Is God of this earth? And one day we will not be of an earthly makeup any longer; this is of necessity, so that the Light will never become too great for us to behold. And so in that Day we will be like the Son, according to John the Revelator who the Son greatly loved. But to try to imagine what the Light will be to us in that Day will do us no good, since we will be using the mind of our earthly man in an effort to bring the vision to pass. Though we can be certain of this. Love is always going to be of the Light that God is. Joy will always be of that Light. Peace and Goodwill are going to come from It; and along with these there will be a wisdom, a knowledge, and an understanding surpassing that of angels. But to see it as it will appear to us then is not for we who yet walk upon the soil of a fallen world; though I know that at times He brings it to us in glimmers.
Oh, for the Light that God is. As a very young boy He opened my eyes to it through a simple child’s toy. So captivated was I with what I saw that I longed to be in the picture that I was beholding. But in the years that were to follow, my life would become invaded by the darkness. Still somewhere in me I knew there was light; though it may have only been a spark. Then came April 21st, 1973. I thank God for the day - the day I started to live. The spark that was in me began to be uncovered and little by little it grew. Today the Light that I saw as a boy has returned, and at times it runs over me like a flood.
“This is the message that we have heard from Him and declared to you,” writes John the beloved, “that God is Light and in Him is no darkness at all.” Walk in the Light. For we who believe, there is no other path to pursue.
J. Pecoraro
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