THE ONES THROUGH WHOM LIGHT SHINES

There’s an old story that preachers love to tell about a little boy defining who a saint was. The little boy attended a church that, like Central, had beautiful stained glass windows. And the little boy’s response, making reference to those windows, was the saints were the ones through whom the light shines.

            

As we approach the Church’s celebration of All Saints Day (November 1), I take that old story as a call to each of us to reflect on our own lives. The saints are not a subset of Christians who achieved some level of notoriety. They are not just the ones memorialized in stained glass windows. No, the saints are the ones through whom we’ve seen light shining.

            

Who have been the saints in your life? Through whom have you seen light shining? They might be people from your past, even people who died long ago. They might be people with whom you still interact every day. They might be religious people, or they might not be. But who have been saints to you? Who have been people through whom you have seen light shining? And how do you think that they did it? How did they shine light into your life? What did they do for you? How did they interact with you and with others? What made them distinctive in your experience with them?

            

 I think that the saints that each of us can identify show us something about the way that we are being called to live our own lives. They are not simply to be admired, although, if you still can, it’s probably a good idea to thank them for what they have meant to you. But as I see it, the saints that each of us can identify give each of us an example for how each of us can live in ways that honor our own core principles—examples of how we can be ones through whom some others will see light shining and how we can become saints.

Pastor Don Steele