Be Thou My Vision

This stained glass window is not the same one as mentioned in
in the blog post, only a representation.  I took this photo at
Seoul Theological Seminary, Bucheon South Korea

When I was about 8 years old, my mom was the church custodian and sometimes, I would go with her on Saturdays to help her clean.  She often referred to the little country church as The House of God.  Polishing the gold-plated candlesticks and dusting wooden pews was a wonderful task for me.  For mom, it kept me busy, but it allowed me to stay in the sanctuary.  When I was done or sometimes while I was dusting, I would sit in the silence and marvel at the stained-glass windows lining the walls.  I loved to be there, in God’s House.  It was quiet.  It was holy.  As an 8 year old, I thought it holy.  Not the building but the space.  Looking back as I write this, I know it was holy because He was there and I believed He was there.  Even though I could not explain it, as a kid, I naturally sensed His presence and being in awe of it.  The same reverence I sensed in the sanctuary, I could sense in the countryside.  Growing up on a farm, I could see God’s handiwork in the stars, in the fields, in the flowers.  In the wind, I could feel His holiness and I could hear it as it blew through the leaves in the trees.  As I grew up and as life got tough, the awe and reverence slowly faded away.  Or… did I fade away?  It was me.  God does not change.  He was. He is. He is to come.  I know it sounds silly, but the awe I had as an eight year old seems to be coming back, and that has revived joy unspeakable in my heart.

The Bible says in Luke 18:17 “Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”  This verse always puzzled me.  Does it mean to accept things without question?  Does it mean to be innocent?  I am not sure what theologians would say, but without even thinking about it, I knew what “the kingdom of God” meant as a child sitting in the sanctuary. I just knew.  Through thinking and praying about recent events, coupled with an amazing Bible class I am taking, finally, I “get it”.  It is like my brain has stayed in the present, but my heart made a quantum leap back in time.  It’s the game changer for me.  It’s not like I am suddenly living in a fairy tale land now and everything is hunky-dory.  No, sadly, I still see the world in all its mess and madness, but I have a vision of what it should be and the understanding of why it isn’t.

All of what I have written here reminds me of one of my favorite hymns:  Be Thou My Vision

“Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;

Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.

Thou my best thought, by day or by night,

Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light”

grace and peace,

Beth