Suncatcher

A reflection written during senior year (2009-2010) as I considered seminary.

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I often find that the small, seamless moments of daily life are among the most inspiring and truth-bearing. When I opened the shades of the wide window in my final undergraduate dorm, the panes filled with the hues of leaves, and the narrow stretch of wooded wilderness behind the building seemed to pour into the room. I welcomed the natural shade, but nonetheless hung a sun-catcher in the window. It dangled in the only available place – centered on the thick frame rather than within the clarity of the windowpanes, so it seemed doubly impossible that it should ever reflect rays of sunlight, but there it stayed. Its presence seemed to suffice.

One afternoon, I arrived home – everything peaceful, the shades still drawn. But when I stepped into the dimly lit room, I found myself immersed in scattered rainbows. Even with the sun high in the sky, even with patchwork foliage obscuring the view of all beyond it, even as my covered windows seemed to shut out the outside world – light and color filled the room because of a simple glass ornament, in itself barely beautiful to behold. This moment, in its own simplicity, transfixed and transformed me.

I'd like to catch the sunlight in unexpected places – to trust the Lord's will and to embrace the truth that God is there in every moment, whether illuminating the entire sky or peeking between the shades.