A SUNBEAM IN THE SANCTUARY

It was a mixture of wonder and joy, the pure delight of discovery, that I saw on the young girl’s face. It happened in church: I was at a day service of a special meeting. The congregation was standing and worshipping. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see this girl, her face absorbed with full attention, her eyes riveted on her hand which she was rotating in this direction and that, raising it a little and lowering it back. Involuntarily, I turned to see more clearly and thought, “What is she doing?” As children that age sometimes do, she was standing with her feet on the top of the back of the seat in front of her while her mother, arms wrapped around her, held her there. The girl, probably four or five, had had her hand stretched upward and was singing and praising, following the modeling of those older folk around her. It was while doing so that she suddenly noticed that her hand from fingertips to halfway to her elbow was awash with brilliant light. The sanctuary was relatively darkened with no visible windows anywhere. I was puzzled, thinking, “From where is that light coming? I looked ceilingward at the large LED fixtures. No. They were flood lights. They would not be producing the beam on her hand. Only a spotlight would do that. A very bright one. Or the sun. It was then I looked at the wall behind us. High up, about 15-20 feet, there was a window! From that window, a narrow beam of light at an angle extended to the girl’s hand before passing further down to the floor. The girl continued to marvel at the brightness on her hand, examining it closely as she kept rotating it. With the hand opened upward, she was moving her fingers as if the light were water running between them and onto her palm. I am not sure she ever concluded why her hand was lit. Or, ever followed that beam’s path to the window and realized that it was the sun. I do know that with a smile on her face, she just closed her eyes and began to visibly worship Jesus all the while still moving her hand as if she were feeling and bathing it in the light from above. This is why I believe in coming to and worshiping in church. It is in worship that we so often discover that God has focused a beam of light upon some part of our mind, heart, and soul. Light that is unexpected. That is brilliant. That fills us with wonder and joy. When that happens, we know the delight of discovering the warmth of His love, the illumination of His wisdom, and the glow of His grace. It is doubtful if the girl would have noticed the same sunbeam on her hand had she been outside. No. It was in a place of worship that she did. She was in church worshipping and, there it was. A sunbeam from 93 million miles away focused with laser accuracy on her hand raised in worship to God. Wonderful! Yet, from further away, all the way from heaven, God will send forth His beam of light right to that dark place of your heart, your mind, and your life. Lift your hand and see. Better yet, lift your heart. There IS a sunbeam in the sanctuary. --Pastor Clifford Hurst