A Children’s Story of People and the Light
Posted by Os Cresson on Oct 19 2005 | Tagged as: Stories and Poems
Not long ago in a place not far from here, there were many people living together but they went into different little buildings to worship. These buildings were quite close together and each one had its own door to go in by. In each of the houses of worship there was a wonderful light mounted on the wall that shone down on them with many colors. And when you looked up at the light you saw that it was like a painting: a story in the pattern of many colors!
Life went on like this for a long time and then one day some kids who were neighbors decided to go visiting each other’s buildings. (Before this they had each gone into only one of these places of worship.) They were amazed to see that each place had a shining light on the wall! And then, looking around some more, they discovered that their little buildings weren’t separate at all! In fact, the walls around them were only partitions dividing up a much larger building!! They tore down the partitions and opened up a great space with colored lights all around the walls. And the stories you could see in the lights were really part of a much larger story that they enjoyed learning about.
Later these kids, who were worshiping together now, decided to look more closely at the lights that shown from the walls. They found that these were really windows and light from the outside was streaming through making the windows shine in many colors! It was the same light behind all the windows on the walls where they worshiped!!And then, these young people noticed something else: they saw that the light they enjoyed inside when they worshiped was the same light they played in outside! The inner light and the outer light were the same – it was all sunlight! The source of light that gave beauty to their religious lives when they worshiped also guided them in their daily lives. It warmed them and fed them and showed them their way. They loved this and rushed in and out of the big building feeling happy in the light and telling people about it.
One day some of them were enjoying the light and they began to wonder how it was that they saw the light and how they knew what it was. They studied and studied and what they found out was that when we say, “I see the light,” it means the light has entered our eyes and tickled the jelly that is our brains and when this happens someone has taught us to say, “That is light!” The warming rays from the sun enter our bodies and tickle the jelly that quivers and says, “I see.” So, the young people saw that we are all children playing in the same light, enjoying the colors of it when we worship and guided by it in the rest of our lives, and that this light is within us all. They danced in the light and as they danced they sang a song and it went like this:
May the long time sun shine upon you,
All love surround you,
And the pure light within you,
Guide you all the way home!
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