See the Light

Recently, I was thinking of a song from my youth. My Aunt Norma helped me with the lyrics; she found them on an old Ernest Tubb album. Norma told me she remembered lying on the floor as a little girl on Saturday nights, listening to the Grand Ole Opry on the radio. The song is called,
I SAW THE LIGHT:

"I wandered so aimless, life filled with sin,
I wouldn't let my dear Savior in,
Then Jesus came like a stranger in the night,
Praise the Lord, I saw the light."

Chorus:
"I saw the light, I saw the light,
No more darkness, no more night,
Now I'm so happy, no sorrow in sight,
Praise the Lord, I saw the light."

"Just like a blind man, I wandered alone,
Sorrows and troubles I claimed for my own,
Then like the blind man, God gave back his sight,
Praise the Lord, I saw the light."

"I was a fool who wandered and strayed,
But straight is the gate, and narrow the way,
Now I have traded the wrong for the right,
Praise the Lord, I saw the light."

I haven’t heard anyone say it in a long time, but when I was a boy, sometimes you might hear someone say, “I have seen the light.” I always took it to be a symbolic expression, a figure of speech, usually meaning the person had had a religious conversion. He or she had “seen the error of their ways” and were turning their life around. I wondered, though, if anyone had actually ever really seen a light.

The Acts of the Apostles tells the story of a Pharisee named Saul. The Pharisees were an order committed to strict observance of Jewish law.
“Now Saul, still breathing murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, that, if he should find any men or women who belonged to the Way, he might bring them back to Jerusalem in chains. On his journey, as he was nearing Damascus, a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?"
He said, "Who are you, sir?"
The reply came, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Now get up and go into the city and you will be told what you must do."
The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, for they heard the voice but could see no one. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him to Damascus.
For three days he was unable to see, and he neither ate nor drank.” (Chapter 9: 1-9)


The Lord appeared in a vision to a disciple named Ananias and sent him to Saul. Things like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he regained his sight and was baptized and was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Saul saw the light, “a great light…brighter than the sun,” and he changed; he became the Apostle Paul, the great evangelist.

I’m reminded of another expression: “I saw my life flash before my eyes!” This has come to mean that the individual has had a close call or a brush with death. It originates from the idea that when a person dies, in the matter of just a few seconds, he or she sees their entire life replayed before them.

I’ve read quite a few accounts of people who have had near-death or after-death experiences (and I’ve been blessed to have actually gotten to know a few of them personally). These are people who have literally died and been resuscitated, and their accounts very often include a life review. More that just a replay of one’s life, the individuals are made aware of all the good and all the wrong they have done in their lives. Sometimes these individuals state that they actually feel what the other person felt, all the pain they had caused! In these illuminations, they were seeing the state of their souls; they were seeing themselves the way God sees them.

After this life review, most near/after death accounts speak of a bright light. Many people see Jesus in this light, and many speak of the most incredible experience of love. “…for God is love.” (1 John 4: 8) And this experience isn’t limited to near-death experiences. I have one friend who experienced this while on retreat years ago. And like the Apostle Paul, my friend was changed; he became a new man.

One thing we can count on in this life is that, one day, each and every one of us is going to die. Perhaps many years from now, perhaps today…

Mirjana Soldo, one of the Medjugorje visionaries, states that unbelievers “…are wasting their lives on things they cannot keep. So many people today have made gods out of things, goals, and other people. For them there is only weeping and anguish because our life on earth is so short – so very short.”

And when we stand before Our Lord, when we see the life we have lived, everything revealed, what will we see? What gifts will we present to Him? One day, perhaps one day soon, each one of us will stand, our souls naked before the One who knew our names before we were born, and in the Light of Truth and Love and Mercy that is our God we will see our soul the way He sees it. Will it be a picture of one who put God in the first place by living a life of joyful sacrifice and service to others? Or will it be a picture of one who followed the selfish ways of the world?


I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship. Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect. For by the grace given to me I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than one ought to think, but to think soberly, each according to the measure of faith that God has apportioned.
--Paul’s Letter to the Romans 12: 1-3