You are the light of the world

Do you remember who you are?


Can you remember when you were a child and the world was a huge, wonderful and mysterious place for you to explore?  You loved to see pictures of animals and exotic foreign places around the world.  Remember? You probably didn't even care what the words were in your favorite story books, you would lean way around your mother or father to see the pictures.  It was all wonderful and all you wanted to do was get out there and see, smell, hear and feel everything around you.


So, what's happened?  Are you still that child, are you still a little explorer who has a thirst and curiosity for life?  Is your day still about finding a way to laugh and sing or run through the fields with your friends, or climb the neighbors fence just to feel the thrill of getting way up high, of swimming just to feel the water around you or riding a horse to feel his strong body beneath yours and see the world from up high?  Can you remember riding in a truck and barely being able to get your little legs up on the step to lift yourself up high in the vehicle?


Who were you, really, then?  Did you think you were someone other than that little mind inside your litltle body that just wanted to have fun?  No.  You did not.  You never ever gave it a single thought.  You just wanted to play and be happy and be with your friends and explore this beautiful world TOGETHER.


But, today, so many of us who were once little playful explorers, are tied down to depreciating house values, low level jobs, maybe full of the woes of other people's worries, too.  We forgot how to laugh, a long time ago.  We fell into the trap of thinking that we had to "find ourselves," as if we'd ever lost ourselves.  But, the sad truth is we had lost ourselves as we were taught to identify our talents and then put them to work in a field that suits us, and then before we knew it we went out there looking for a "suit" that fits us, an "out there" identity to replace that natural, free, joyful self with which we came into the world.


We forgot.  We all forgot and then we got lost in our forgetfulness.  The sad truth is our exterior identity is not us.  It is not real.  It is like putting on a mask and saying we are that mask.  The mask is not us.  We are that presence, that pure presence of radiant delight and curiosity and creativity and friendship, that is being covered up by the mask.


The Gospel says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit for they shall inherit the kingdom of God."  You might wonder why the poor in spirit would inherit a kingdom?  Simply, because they never found a mask that fitted and so remained there in the kingdom of Heaven, spiritually.  The Gospel says only those who are like children can enter the kingdom of God, probably because they never left it.  We come into the world as little angels, but we lose our beautiful bright angelic lights because the world tells us that we need to put on these masks and be successful, make a lot of money so we can have a lot of stuff, so we can show everyone around us that we're very good - very, very good and so deserving of praise, money and prestige, even status and power.  But, in the end, when the game is over and the mask rolls us, what is left?  Who is there?  Was it worth it?  You answer that.


If we were to return to that state of innocence in which we arrived here, and rather than put a mask on and work very hard to diminish the joy and light and free spontaneity children are minded not to be, if we were to turn back the clock a few decades, and start again, maybe we could or would embellish upon that light that flickered for a few years in the sunlight of our childhoods and allow it to grow, fan the embers of God's spirit within us, and allow it to grow and mature, and then who would we be?  Then, what kind of power might we have, what would we do with that power, with all that joy, with all that curiosity and friendship-building?  


I truly believe it is never too late - even if you are 100 years old - to take off the mask and plunge back into the radiante beings of light, of joy, of peace, of playful creativity, that we once were.  It's never too late to embrace the joyful natures we were born with and in that embrace, surrender all the worries and care of our lives to the great Source of all life, the One who created us and loves us and waits longingly for our return.  


We are, each and every one of us, the light of the world.  Together, we are an amazing blaze of glory that would be seen throughout the universe, if only we would each take off the mask, and let our individual lights shine.  Lately, I've noticed more and more people stepping into the gap in kindness, embracing "the child" whether it's a little nine-year-old girl who was shot in Tucson or a little six-year-old who, as she was singing the national anthem, lost power to her microphone and the entire stadium of fans, sang along with her.  


Maybe as we return to our own state of childhood, take off the mask, and put on the courage to be a child again, remember who we are, then our little lights would all begin to shine more brightly, a light that would shine as brightly as a star throughout the cosmos.  Just maybe.  I know for me, that is my goal and my hope for myself and all of us.