May 6, 2008

• Be a reflector of God’s light

• Accept the goodness of everyone

• There has always been light

• The light you reflect is brought back to you

God, the Spirit Center of everyone, is always present, is always comforting, is always guiding and strengthening. It is precisely those characteristics, all that is included in being loving, that you seek. It is those characteristics that you have learned are what life is about—the purpose of your lives—and these characteristics are also a part of the nature of God.

So you are being asked to reflect God. You are being asked in your own way to become what is godly. You are not asked to be the complete embodiment of God, for that is not possible. But you are encouraged, you are instructed, you are enlightened as you engage in your journey through life to reflect your understanding of God. Your understanding expands in time. Your understanding expands through challenges. Your understanding expands through being loved, and it expands in every effort you make to be loving. As that understanding grows, so also grows your reflective nature of the presence of God.

Each of you is a reflector, but you reflect not just what comes from God directly. You reflect also what comes from around you. That reflection, that process of reflection, is complicated and has many layers. When you receive love, you reflect a capacity to be loving. You don’t necessarily reflect completely and exactly the love that you receive, but the capacity to be loving enables you to expand the presence of love, even when it is expressed differently than the love you have experienced. The reflection is not a perfect reflection, for it is not intended to be perfect. You can receive love from one source, but you can reflect it outward to many. You take the illumination you receive and you expand it, you disseminate it, you share it to a wider presence.

Your service as a reflector can also have negative responses, for if you experience hate and violence, it is part of the human condition for some to respond with hate and violence. This reflection is not a wish of God, it is not indicative of your understanding of God, so your ability to reflect and the impact of your reflection are informed, shaped, given direction and illumination through your perception and understanding of God. In a sense, God is a kind of filter that permits the potential for positive reflection, no matter what you may encounter. It is because of your perception of God that you see life in a particular manner.

All human beings are reflectors. All human beings have been the subject of love, whether they acknowledge having received it or not. Love has been offered. But all human beings also experience hate and experience whatever you consider to be antagonistic to your view of God. For an individual with little sensitivity to God’s presence, the ability of that filter to help shape what you reflect is diminished, and in an environment devoid of a knowledge of God, what is reflected merely repeats what has been received, whether good or bad.

Human nature is clearly a matter of reflection. If someone is unaware of being loved, there’s no ground for conscious acts of being loving. A human being merely acts according to experiences. When an individual receives attitudes that may be considered offensive and does not welcome a kind of filter that allows some good to come from them, then that individual is more prone to in turn be offensive. In the simplest form, good begets good and bad begets bad.

The reflective nature of human life is undeniable, and that is why your perception of God is so important, because it is through that perception that good can come out of evil, that joy can come out of pain, that love can come out of hate, that affirmation can come out of discrimination, and communication can come out of isolation. Every human being has an innate ability to reflect lightness, to reflect joy from what is dark and oppressive. The filter that is God’s presence is a reality that identifies what is positive from any negative experience. It is why you can be loving when you are surrounded by the opposite. It is why you can be supportive when you are surrounded by criticism. It is why you can act with strength when you are assaulted by challenges.

This filter, this presence of God, is a struggle for every human being to understand. No one can understand that Spirit Center in its fullness, but it is not difficult to understand the goodness of that reality, and in understanding the goodness, you can draw upon it and you can choose to reflect that which is positive.

No human being is left with no options for good. There is no life that is inherently evil. There is no individual who exists surrounded only by darkness. In the darkest of nights, the stars still exist, and each of you has the opportunity of taking that faint starlight and focusing it in your own way to emanate great light.

So your ability to reflect is enormously influenced by your willingness to accept— accepting a concept of God that is positive, accepting the goodness of everyone, even those who do you or others harm. You’re taking the night, but reflecting the stars. This is what you are being led to do through your guides. We see the stars even when you’re surrounded by clouds, and we can assure you of the existence of that distant light so that you may reflect it intensely and effectively. There is no absolute darkness. There is always light somewhere at all times.

Scientists query the origin, the beginning, the shape, the nature of the universe. But what is difficult for anyone to understand is that there has always been light. The universe as you’ve come to understand it had a beginning, but before that theoretical beginning, there was light. There was energy. There was an existence. The light did not come from absolute darkness, for there has never been absolute darkness. And just as this is true in talking of the universe, it is also true when speaking of the human condition. No matter what the challenge, no matter what the grief, no matter what the burden, light always, always is present. And every individual can reflect what is light.

Imagine, if you will, what it would mean to reflect darkness. If there were only darkness, there would be nothing to reflect. Reflection can only take place when there is something to reflect, and that is the nature of human life. You all reflect. You are all influenced by God. Every human being has that filter. There is no reflector that exists without the loving, caring filter that is God. There is a light to God’s presence, and that light, the light from that filter, exists even when there is no perception of any light, and it is that light which can always be reflected outward. It is natural to feel at times away from the light. Every human being experiences that, for every human being experiences fear, doubt, anxiety. But nevertheless there is always present for every human being a light that can be received and reflected.

Nature inflicts great hardships on many, and you are aware of such examples that you hear of daily. That suffering seems beyond comprehension and seems to be a kind of absolute darkness, but there is light in that suffering. There is light in the loss, and there is light which comes from you as you pray for it, as you bring the suffering of others to your own awareness. When you seek God in the presence of that light, in the midst of such suffering, you are reflecting light to others. You’re reflecting the light because you are praying for God’s presence, and in praying or acknowledging God, you therefore are accepting a light in your lives that can be reflected to others who feel themselves in complete darkness.

It is important and helpful to view your lives as reflections. You’re a part, a product of your past, as is everyone, but you are also empowered to take from your past and build what you wish. If you seek peace, if you seek reconciliation, if you seek love, if you seek understanding, if you seek compassion, you can bring about what it is that you seek. If you seek an ability to reflect light, you will reflect light. As we said, no reflection is perfect. If you seek to reflect God’s light, you do not become God but you become godly. If you seek light, you are not the embodiment of Spirit; you are a reflection of Spirit, and such a life is in complete keeping with God’s wishes.

Be not discouraged when you recognize that you are not perfect in your reflection. Accept that imperfection, but welcome the opportunities. We see your reflections quite visually, for your reflections are light and your lights carry with them many hues. We recognize you by your hues, and we also acknowledge that the light you reflect is a part of God’s light. It is not God’s light but belongs to God’s light. The imperfection of your reflection is in total keeping with God’s intentions. Therefore, take into your life what life provides you, and consciously choose to reflect back outward what is good, what is godly, what is loving, what is supportive, and you will in turn find that the light that you reflect is brought back to you. You can then absorb that light, and your own lights will be enhanced, strengthened, and warmed by love.

Be blessed in your light. Be blessed in your ability to reflect. Be blessed in the influence that God has on your reflection to all around you. Be then a beacon of light. It is perhaps not a perfect light, but in any darkness it is the light that goes forward in all directions. Spread the light and be blessed by God.

Amen.