This is a story
about Grace. Do you know what Grace is? No? Well, Grace is a gift
that Spirit bestows on all of us, regardless of whether we deserve it
or not. It is an unexpected gift of Love, which we need to recognize
and be thankful for.
Once upon a time,
there was a land shrouded in darkness. This was not always so; at
one time, it had been a land of great Light and warmth and beauty.
Until the Darkness
appeared. And things began to change.
At first, the
Darkness was just a vague impression on the edge of sight, an
uneasiness that tickled awareness—then fled. Over time, the tickle
turned into a shiver as the Darkness sent out tendrils, like
premonitions, in the night. People were not afraid, however, for one
reason: this Darkness made the Light in the land even more beautiful
and radiant. The Darkness became a riddle that called out for an
answer.
But as time went on
and the riddle went unanswered, people forgot to notice and give
thanks for the Light, for they were fascinated by the Darkness. And
slowly, over time, the Darkness spread and the Light became dimmer
and dimmer, though the people didn't even notice that the Light had
changed. You see, their eyes became accustomed to the dimness and
they could see just as well as ever, or so they thought.
But not everyone
forgot the beauty of the Light that used to cover the land.
Sometimes these people read about it in old books; oftentimes they
dreamed about it; and some passed the knowledge of it down within
their families from generation to generation.
And in not
forgetting the Light, it turned out that it lived on in their
imaginations so brightly that it filled their eyes with its very own
clarity, and they could see things that other people could not see.
But the ones who remembered were only a few compared to the others,
and if they talked about what they could see, they were most often
ignored and sometimes reviled.
Eventually the land
grew so dark that more people began to acknowledge that they really
couldn't see very well at all! But since there were so many others
still stumbling around in the dark, everything became even more
chaotic and frantic. In short, things got even worse!
And the Darkness
deepened.
One day, a woman sat
watching her children at play. This woman was neither young nor yet
very old, and her children were not babes nor yet were they grown.
And because she was one of those who loved the memory of the Light,
and imagined it and longed for it until it shone in her eyes, she saw
something no one else saw. She saw her children, who were filled
with a sense of her own inner Light, growing dimmer and dimmer with
each passing day, for the full weight of the Darkness around them was
too hard to fight off.
Gradually a resolve
grew in this mother until one night when she put her children to bed,
she told them she was leaving on a journey to find the Light. Since
she didn’t know how long she’d be gone, she wanted them to take
care of each other, to love each other, and to remember her own love
for them every day. She promised she’d come back to them as soon
as she could.
The woman set out
that very night, determined to travel to the source of the Light
which used to cover the land, and entreat it to come back with her.
Although she had no idea where to begin her search, she walked
through the cold lonely winter night with great joy in her heart,
despite her worry at leaving her children. For she rejoiced in the
thought of seeing the Light at last, the Light she had loved and
imagined all her life. She soon found herself singing to the Light
in the dark of the night. And although their own light was very much
dimmed in that land, still the stars and the Moon in heaven heard
that mother's song, and they sang back to her melodies of the glory
she was searching for.
In the morning, the
woman came to the outskirts of a village. But something was terribly
wrong! Trees had been uprooted and left to rot; the fields had been
dug up in piles of dirt, while all the animals in the fields looked
as if no one had taken them back to the barn for weeks! In the
village, it was even worse. People scurried around like unsettled
ants. They were so focused on looking for something
they completely
ignored the woman, even when she called out to them. She had never
seen such chaos!
The villagers were
dismantling their homes, turning up the streets, peering into dark
places. When she finally managed to get someone to stop and speak to
her, she was told there was a great treasure of gold hidden somewhere
within the village, and whoever found it would be rich beyond
imagining. Then before she could ask another question, the villager
rushed off to continue his search.
Shaken by what she
was seeing, the woman came upon the village green—a small patch of
undisturbed green grass with one white bare-branched birch tree. As
she walked over to rest under the tree, she saw the most beautiful
golden glow (like the glow of a summer sunrise in our world!). When
she came to the tree, she saw within the golden light a carved wooden
chest full of gold coins!
There, right in the
midst of the village, was the gold in plain sight! Yet obviously, no
one saw it. As a matter of fact, she began to notice that people's
eyes glazed over as they looked in the direction of the green, as if
they couldn't even see the tree—as if they saw nothing at all!
Then they quickly turned their gaze away and began seriously
squinting at the ground they had already gone over. The woman watched
this for a while, then sighing, shook her head, silently turning to
go. It was not for her to take the gold, even if she could carry it
away.
At the edge of the
green she stopped, for she noticed a young man building
a house. As she
watched him, she saw that he had the eyes of a dreamer, and that
there was some Light in him. So she went to him and brought him to
the tree, and asked what he could see. Why,
the tree of course! And the green, green grass.
The mother looked in
his eyes and asked if he could see anything else. He held her gaze
and then blinked and looked again. Well,
he couldn’t say for sure, but he did imagine there was a hazy
golden something in the air. So
he asked the woman to describe the gold to him and perhaps he could
imagine what it looked like. The woman described the light and the
gold, and before very long the young man could see the skillful
workmanship of the carved chest, and the abundance and goldenness of
the coins. The woman told him to take the gold and use it to help
the villagers rebuild their homes after the madness of the search
passed. And the young man solemnly promised to do it.
At nightfall, the
woman found herself deep in the woods near an ash tree on a grassy
knoll. Pulling her cloak tightly around her, she lay down under the
tree, planning to rest for a few hours before continuing on her way.
As she slept, she
dreamed a luminous Moon came down out of the heavens and sank into
the Earth beneath the tree.
Elana Gibeault
She got up to search
for it and started digging up the dirt around the roots, until she
came upon a pearl-like crystal, which shed its milky light upon the
tree, giving it a glimmering sheen. The light grew brighter and her
heart filled with hope that she had finally found what she was
seeking.
Suddenly the
villagers were all around her and when they saw the light-giving
crystal, they took out their pick-axes and hammers and began chipping
away at the stone, until all the light disappeared and there were
only shards of crystal left scattered on the ground.
The woman awoke,
crying.
She desperately
searched the darkness of the surrounding forest, fearful that the
villagers had come, but there were only the animals and birds of that
place, making little adjustments in their dens and nests. She looked
at the knoll beneath the tree, and without thinking began digging in
the ground. Very soon she came upon the shining stone of her dream,
and with an anguished cry, she stopped. She didn't want to expose
the light, but it was her only clue to finding the Light.
What should she do?
What should she do?
She sat there,
waiting . . . waiting for an answer. And before long it came. She
heard a gentle voice telling her to Come
in. But come
in where? Why
into the stone, of course!
And once again
without thinking, the woman stretched out her hand to the stone and
suddenly found herself slipping into its pearly light.
Once inside the
luminous light, she was filled with such sweet warmth that it brought
to mind an old memory of a time when her grandmother rocked her to
sleep. In truth, she felt as if she was being held within a woman's
arms, all safe and snug and listening to a lullaby about the beauty
of the Light that used to shine upon the land.
Her quest! And
with the memory came a voice that bide her to go
on, on through the
luminescence in search of the source of the Light. She felt a gentle
shove on her back and started walking, even though she could discern
no path for her feet to follow.
Quite unexpectedly,
she found herself in darkness again, but this time a very warm,
almost cozy darkness. Before long, she realized she could see what
was around her, because unlike the upper world, this lower world's
darkness was very alive! She saw all the flower bulbs tucked into
the Earth for the winter, just as snug as her own children in their
beds at night.
She saw the roots of
trees stretching down into the Earth, just as their branches reached
up to the heavens above. There were rivers and streams of pure
water, flowing through crystal rocks, as well as solid rivers of
gold, silver and copper veining the ledge. The stones themselves
were so colorful, they rivaled our most beautiful sunsets, and there
were gem stones that twinkled like the stars in heaven! She walked
past all these wonders until she came to the center of the Earth, and
in that crystal cavern, beyond a pool of azure water, she saw a
glorious Light.
Gazing across the
watery depths, her heart thundered and tears flowed down her cheeks.
Here was the Light she was seeking. On the wings of that joy, she
suddenly found herself standing before the source of that Light.
There, in the heart
of a shining halo, was a Baby, a most wondrous and beautiful Child.
And just as mothers always do, that mother couldn't help but smile
with love at the sight of the tiny baby enfolded in the Light.
The
Child looked at the woman with a tender smile and she seemed to hear
it say to her, I’ve
waited for you so long! How glad I am you’ve finally come."
With these words,
the woman's heart grew large with love and she bent over to pick up
the Child, cradling the baby in her arms. She wrapped the baby
inside her cloak and turning, left the cavern. She made her way back
to the pearly chamber, and as she passed through, she felt a
feather-light kiss upon her brow and knew that she was loved just as
surely as she loved the small baby in her arms.
She couldn’t say
for sure when she finally left the luminous light behind and emerged
into the wintry night, because the pearly light and the first
snowflakes blended into each other. As she hurried home with her
precious burden, the snowflakes drifted down faster and faster from
the night sky, and she had to go slower and slower. But a Light
shone from within her cloak where the Child lay next to her heart,
and as she went on, the animals of the forest and the winged ones of
the air saw the Light and followed after her.
She silently passed
through the village, now quiet and cozy under its blanket of snow.
As she passed, the young dreamer suddenly awoke in his chair next to
his hearth, and with a cry of delight, ran out into the snowy night.
Then the children of the village woke up from their sleep and ran to
their windows to see the Light filling the night with splendor, and
they called joyously to their parents to Come
out! Come out! And
see the great wonder.
The mother finally
approached her own village, followed by a great crowd of humans and
animals. She was so intent on getting home to her own children that
she didn’t see they were already hurrying down the road to meet
her, for the Light now flew before her and filled the night.
When the mother saw
her children standing there in the snowy night, her face lit up and
she stumbled through the snow to embrace them. Then, gently
unclasping her cloak, she bent down to show them the baby. A great
glory shone from the Child, and all the creatures there that night
imagined that they each sheltered the baby from the storm. Everyone
felt their hearts open and they smiled, just as anyone would smile at
the sight of a beautiful newborn baby, and the Child smiled
contentedly back.
No one could quite
remember when the Child and the Light began to fade away with the
storm, except the mother who heard the silent farewell in her heart.
The stars glittered brightly in the cold dark sky and the Moon sent
down her blessing. Blessed with this unexpected grace, the people
felt a great peace and joy descend upon them, the Light once again
shining in their eyes. The animals and the birds sang out their own
joy, and there was great rejoicing all around. And in the days that
followed, the humans and animals made a peace which exists to this
day.
And from that night,
the Light and the image of the Child lived on in their hearts, and it
spread from heart to heart, until the Light was as bright as it had
once been in the land. Now, all people could see and love the Light,
but they didn’t reject the Darkness, for they had finally solved
the riddle. They knew that the Darkness had a beauty all its own.
For it was in the
Darkness that the light of the stars and the Moon brought to mind the
Child of Light who had come back to them on that cold and snowy
winter's night.
