Monday in the second week of Lent

Psalm 56 • Jeremiah 1:11-19 • Romans 1:1-15 • John 4:27-42

For you have delivered my soul from death,

And my feet from falling,

So that I may walk before God

In the light of life.

—   Psalm 57:15

Sunlight is falling upon a flower. Why does light make the flower so beautiful? The answer is, because light gave it life. Without light there would be no photosynthesis, and no living thing would exist on the planet. Life is like a spark—a flash of energy we cannot comprehend, but when the spark goes out the life we cherish is gone. Hold the hand of a loved one as he or she dies. You know death has come when there is no warmth in the hand, no blush in the cheek. The spark is no longer there.

God is the light of life. God is the spark. Christ focused these rays of mystical light directly into our souls. God also bathed the humble living creatures of this planet with the warmth of his light. We are charged to be responsible stewards of these beings of His creation.

As we look into the heavens and learn there are far distant planets similar to ours, we ask, “Is there life there?” The answer is: only if there is a spark, a mystical light bathing those planets as it bathes ours.

I ask, “What is life?” Only God can understand life or give life. We are so blessed on this planet to be the recipients of this unfathomable light called life. Life is a mystery, so unique in the universe that only a loving creator could mold us from such a rare and beautiful thing as light in an act which we know is love.

— Lucy Byrd Pegau