His Light Reaches Every Nation

Dear Reader,

There are many churches and faith traditions in our world today. Each carries its own history, teachings, sacred writings, forms of worship, and understanding of how humanity approaches God. Many also make particular claims about truth, authority, revelation, or the path God has given His children.

I do not feel a need to diminish any of them in order to honor my own faith.

My faith matters deeply to me. I believe covenant matters. I believe sacred ordinances, priesthood authority, doctrine, and the community of a church can give form and direction to our relationship with God. They provide a place where faith can be taught, practiced, strengthened, and passed from one generation to another.

But through my own experience, I have also come to believe that God's grace is greater than the walls we build around our understanding of Him.

Grace is not something a church manufactures or owns. Grace comes from God. It is part of the divine goodness by which God gives life, calls us toward Him, and moves human hearts toward mercy and love.

I have seen that grace in people who do not share my doctrine or worship where I worship. I have seen something sacred in a hand extended to a stranger, in food shared with someone who is hungry, in forgiveness freely offered, in the quiet care of the suffering, and in people who choose mercy when judgment would have been easier.

These experiences have taught me that God's presence may be recognized not only by the name above the doorway, but also by what happens when we walk through that doorway and meet one another.

God's covenant gives sacred form to His work, but His power cannot be confined to an office, institution, or people. His breath gives life to all; His light reaches every nation; and His Spirit becomes visible wherever humble hearts practice justice, mercy, and compassionate service.

The open doorway in the accompanying image represents covenant, worship, and sacred structure. Yet the light does not remain inside. It pours outward into the world, where it becomes visible in compassion, mercy, and service.

Christ's teaching that we are the light of the world gives this thought a personal responsibility. A candle is not lit to be hidden beneath a bushel, but to be placed upon a candlestick where its light can be seen.

So perhaps the invitation is not merely to recognize God's light wherever it appears, but to become willing bearers of that light ourselves. Let us stand where God has placed us and allow compassion, mercy, justice, forgiveness, and service to shine from our lives. Let us not hide the candle, but place it upon the candlestick where others may see - not us, but something of God through us.

My faith gives me a place to stand.

God's grace reminds me that His light reaches far beyond the place where I am standing.

And wherever we stand, may we have the courage to be that light.

His light reaches every nation.