Our gaze is submarine, our eyes look upward
And we see the light that fractures through unquiet water.
We see the light, but not whence it comes.
O Light Invisible, we glorify Thee!
- T. S. Eliot, Choruses from "The Rock"
We look about and see little children crying amid ruined streets of rubble.
We look about and see the faces of uprooted and victimized people distorted by anger and pain.
We look about and see what was once sure footing dissolved into darkness.
We feel lost and betrayed when trust is snatched away.
St. Paul once wrote, "at present we see indistinctly as in a mirror." It can be a very dark mirror with many fractured images.
Perhaps this is when we cling most tightly to the hope inside of us that fights to stay undimmed.
It is a hope that tells us the enduring light of God, although imperfectly seen, is still real, is still life affirming, and is still something to believe in.
