God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”
has shone in our hearts.
—2 Corinthians 4.6
I am a rusty lantern,
with its little corroded cap,
its bad latch,
its smudged, cracked glass,
its mottled handle bent to one side—
a plain old busted lantern.
None of this matters,
but the light that burns in it,
the candle of God.
I don’t put the light there,
it’s already there,
shining since the beginning of time.
I only marvel,
and walk around with that light in me,
silent, calm, reaching farther than I can know.
It shines,
and I wonder.
—February 8, 2018