One Good Thing Every Day: May 30, 2014
Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.
While reading familiar, memorized scripture, it becomes easy to gloss over deeper meaning or new insight. But, this time I thought about this verse for longer than a glance.
I think nothing of flipping on a light when darkness fills a room. But, what of the young shepherd sitting on a hill through the evening watches?
His eyes adjust as far as humanly possible to the night's shroud. The moon and stars provide a dim glow even as they cast shadowy images to trick him. His ears listen for prowling predators and stealthy bandits. If he lights a fire against the one, he alerts the other to his presence. He will shiver in the cold to avoid a flame. He recalls a psalm his father once taught him around the one lamp, filling their home with light. He imagines the rationed oil, used for burning and for bread, glowing in the lamps' reservoir. The words, entering his mind and seeping into his heart, seem to flow through him. Even his feet feel warm. Beyond the sleeping sheep, the path toward home appears illumined with the approaching dawn.