It’s no exaggeration to say I think of this lesson/challenge/invitation on a weekly basis… Because, well, I light candles on the regular now. (Almost every day.) Last night I finished another and thought “Huh, maybe it’s time to share those words again…” Seeing as that came out of no where when it could have shown up any given week over the last three years, I’m just going with it and hoping that if you read this in 2021, it somehow meets you right where you are today. I’ve tweaked one line, as the piece went in the January 2021 issue of HomeLife Magazine and mentioned the new year, but other than that, here it is as it was. I’ve changed and life has changed since then, of course, so if I were to write it now I’d likely phrase a few things differently, take out or add in… but the truth is that intentionally looking through this lens has changed me. And so I’ll leave it, and trust that the seemingly random thought was meant for someone who needs it today like I did not long ago at all. 💛

++++

For years, I stored half a dozen candles in a cabinet, always waiting for a “better day” or the “best time.” Each unlit wick told the story: at some point along the way, I began to act as if candles are only meant for parties, celebrations, or magical moments. Regular life was extra ordinary — rarely extraordinary — and so they sat gathering dust day after day, month after month.

Instead of savoring them, I saved them. It took years to realize I was actually saying my actual life wasn’t worth a candle. And then in the middle of one of those regular days, two questions began to stir inside, refusing to let go while gently offering a new lens to look through:

What if I chose to live like the ordinary of right now is beautiful?

What if I slowed down long enough to appreciate the small things, to count each one as grace?

Nothing about my circumstances changed, yet everything, even the candles stored away in a cabinet, suddenly held a hint of possibility and promise. While I waited for a “better” day, grace patiently waited for me to open my eyes and accept the invitation to slow down, see, and savor the small gifts that were hidden in plain sight.

They were always there, as easy to find as a child playing hide-and-seek, the curtain shaking with giggles as tiny toes stick out underneath.

For far too long, I overlooked the beauty of the ordinary while waiting and wanting for something more, something bigger, something better. It wasn’t until I began to see there’s always meaning in the mundane and glory in what seems common that I reached for the lighter and watched wisps of smoke waft into the air.

It’s simple and it’s small, and much like using the “good china” for a regular Tuesday evening meal, lighting a candle won’t change the world. But it changes how I see the world. Maybe, in some small way, those are the same thing. Maybe, when looking through a lens of grace, the ordinary becomes extraordinary one flickering flame at a time.

Here, as seasons shifts and spring begins to announce its arrival, after many winter months that for many of us held gray days of change or loss, it’s a lit candle and a now-empty cabinet that remind me of an old truth: Light is always breaking through, and even in the dark, there is One who is making all things new.