When My mother was a child there was no electricity. When my mother was a child there were no cars, no refrigerators, no airplanes, no television sets, no telephones and no radios. My mother was born in 1903. If she were alive today she would be 102 years old. One of the desires of her heart was to live to be 100 years old. Although that desire was not granted to my mother, I sometimes can sense a great slice of her heart walking around in me.

Tonight for instance was one of those times.

My husband and I took the “candlelight tour” of the small historic village of New Salem, Illinois. This is the little village where Abraham Lincoln lived and studied to become a lawyer before he moved to Springfield, Illinois.

It was a dark night and seemed colder than it should have been for October 7. All the little log cabins were lit up brightly with candles just like they would have been in Lincoln’s day. There were demonstrations given and stories told of old time muskets, of weaving and spinning, of tiny homemade toys that used to be fashioned for children. There were ladies playing the hammered dulcimer and the harp. There was an elderly gentleman under a tree softly and woefully playing a tin whistle. The tune he was playing tugged at my heart. Being unable to remember its name, I asked the man sitting under the tree what he was playing. He said “Oh that tune is “Poor Wayfaring Stranger.”

When he spoke those words I thought of how many times I’d heard the name of that tune in the season of my life when I’d been close to the bluegrass culture. But this night, this hour, this season of my life the little tune struck a note deep inside me. The man under the tree went on playing his tin whistle. My husband and I turned away and continued walking the dark pathway through the little village lit only by candle bearing lanterns along each side.

I thought about how each of us is just like the name of that tune. I thought about how each of us on this earth is in reality a poor wayfaring stranger. Our eternal home is not Earth.. We were meant for eternity. We are only here temporarily. We are each one on a journey and we are each one going to eventually arrive at our destination . As we walked through the little village we were both struck by the fact that, even though there were candlelit lanterns every few feet, placed there by the graciousness of the staff of the New Salem Historic Village, it was so dark we still could barely make out the figures of the hundreds of people surrounding us!

How like our daily lives!

The Word of God says:

“In Him (Jesus) was the Life and the life was the light of men. And the Light shineth in the darkness and the darkness comprehended it not.”….. “That was the True Light which lighteth every man that cometh in to the world.” (John 1: 3-9)

So…we as men and women of Earth walk our little pathways of life. Many times the pathways are so darkened by the spirit of the world around us we are unable to even discern our steps! When you are walking in great darkness it is easy to trip and fall. It is easy to miss something by the side of the road because you are unable to see it. God knew all about our darkness. God has always known and understood our very nature and the darkness of our hearts. That is why He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die on the Cross of Calvary and to shed His Blood for the redemption of our very souls….to usher in to the souls of those ones who would receive it and believe it, the “Son” Light of His Salvation and Redemption.

The Village of New Salem, Illinois has one almost totally authentic cabin. It is the Coopers House. The Cooper was the man who made different types of wooden barrels.. Some were for household use like buckets that drew water from the well. Some were simply barrels that folks would use to make dill pickles. The cooper even made coffins, plain wooden coffins, simple and useful. He made about $1.50 on a good day, since he received about .48 for a barrel and he could make three barrels a day. In the authentic type cabins there were no frills. Mattresses were made of straw and feathers. Fireplaces were for cooking and heat. Plain wooden blocks were useful for candle holders of which the kitchen table boasted two. Simple tin candle holders decked both sides of the doorway from the bedroom to the kitchen. Two rooms, two candles, one little bed, a cradle, a sewing basket, a butter churn, and a quilt made up the humble décor. There were no colored lights, no blaring tvs and no rock music clamoring from the neighbors’ cabin. American flags, if possessed, flew in some of the neighbor’s yards.

Their nights were dark and quiet. Bibles were on the bed side tables. Churches were open day and night. Many of these people knew they had needs.

Today we have the same needs they have.

The difference is that we, as people of the year 2005 sometimes do not know what our needs are. Therefore we seek psychiatrists to tell us what we need. We seek counselors to tell us what to eat. We seek money and prestige and fancy decorating motifs to enhance our lives. We even seek psychics, and can become in deep bondage through the spirit of the occult

My mother knew what it meant to be still, to spend quiet nights sewing and reading. She understood Psalms 37 which says, “Be still and know that I AM God.” Being still as it is written there means to quiet your mind, calm your soul and simply listen and trust in WHO GOD IS…..and what He has said.

We have lost this art of understanding. It is an art to “Be Still”. It is an art to quietly “KNOW” God. It takes sacrificial offerings of our time.

In my mother’s early years men and women knew how to “Be Still”. In the quiet and dark streets of yesterday there shone another kind of light . “THY WORD IS A LAMP UNTO MY FEET AND A LIGHT UNTO MY PATH.” (Ps. 119) This is the “Son Light.”….brought to us by the Son of God.

My mother sometimes had to walk to the well at night. She sometimes had to walk to the chicken house and other places at night. Sometimes she only had a small lantern, sometimes only the moonlight. She learned how to do hard things, and do them well. She tried to teach me some of these things she had learned but I was not very quiet as a child and did not like “being still”….so I had much to learn when I got older. I remember countless numbers of times on Sunday morning hearing my mother singing an old song called “Heavenly Sunlight”. I can still hear the melody of that song in my head. It rings out clearly as if I were standing next to her this very moment.

“Heavenly Sunlight, Heavenly Sunlight, flooding my soul with glory divine….”

I am thankful for the mother I had and for the times in which she lived. She did not lead a perfect life, but as I look back now I realize how well she had been acquainted with that “Heavenly Son Light” and how many times it saved her from real destruction!

God has always desired to meet the needs of His people, to draw them into closeness to Him as a Father gathers a hurting child into His arms. God loves you. He sent His Son for YOU…to bring to YOU His Heavenly SON LIGHT. If you have never opened your heart to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, don’t wait. Do it today. Jesus is Who you need and He is more than enough to meet your needs.

God has Destiny for YOU today. Invite Jesus to come in to your heart and to take control of your life this very hour. No matter what you’ve been involved in from your past Jesus Christ made a way for you through His death on the cross of Calvary and the power of His Resurrection is your invitation to eternal peace through Him.

Prayer:
Father in Heaven, through Jesus your Son, help us to stand in that Heavenly Son light! Help us Lord to be aware of your Word because it truly is the Lamp unto our Feet and the Light unto our path. Help us to open our hearts to You and to Your destiny for our lives by yielding to the Lordship of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Protect us Lord from veering off to the left or to the right. We ask for Right Priorities and for Cleansing from the junk of the world. Deliver us from Distraction, Lord, that we might hear You instead of the blaring noise from the World. Let the Rays of your Heavenly Son Light bathe us and heal our hearts, in Jesus name, Amen.