Enlightenment

Everyone seems to be looking for enlightenment. I have a few friends who are squinting here and there, looking for the solution to their darkness. And in times when I don’t follow scripture’s injunctions on loving and seeking God with all my heart, I experience life as shadow as well.

Last weekend, I sat on the plane next to a woman who told me she was doing a course on “Miracles! Have you seen it? It is eight weeks of learning to see the miracles everywhere and opening ones self to the universe. I’m on an exploration of Buddhism and this is part of it.”

I looked her straight in the eyes and said, “I think that’s nonsense. Who’d want to work really hard at not feeling anything… in the hope of checking out at the end of life into “Nothingness” (Nirvana)? Seems to me life is designed to be lived to the full. The Bible says when we die we get to see the One we’ve served – our Creator God who absolutely loves us.”

She blinked a few times, downed another rum and coke (she’d had two already so I wasn’t afraid to offend her by blunt speech) and said, “Well, yes. I suppose I want to live life well, too.” And then went into some other New Age diversion. She definitely wasn’t interested in the salvation offered in the Bible.

But I’m hopeful. She mentioned she is reading through the Bible as part of her search of wisdom literature. “Of course, I don’t believe in a God like people wrote about in the Bible. I think authors just wrote whatever they thought.” She was intent on disabusing me of the notion that she might be swayed by scripture passages of consequences for sin or disobedience. “I just pick and choose whatever sounds good to me.” She is a child of today’s culture, wandering here and there looking for illumination.

Maybe God’s word will shine light into her searching heart. That’s my prayer, anyhow. I am thankful for every ray and beam of light that God has given us through his Son and his Word.

Read more: (Thanks, Tillie)
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. Isaiah 9:2 NIV

*This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Joseph, her fiancé, was a good man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement* quietly. As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. "Joseph, son of David," the angel said, "do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."

All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord's message through his prophet: "Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means `God is with us.'"

When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife.25 But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus. Matthew 1: 18-25