Light Hymn
You said, “Let there be light.”
And it was so, and it was good.
You spoke and at your word from nothing it came into being.
Dark torn apart from the start by the radiance of your light.
This sovereign Light that blazes bright,
so that the hottest sun is but a flickering candle in the shade of your glory.
This Light that graphs out galaxies and composes constellations,
this mystery spanning eternity,
yet current, conducting the stars celestial symphony.
And yet, this very same Light serenades the souls of us prodigals.
Calls us, draw us back home.
Searches us out, welcomes us in, envelopes and embraces us,
does this Light.
You created us from dust to cradle your light in us,
to reflect the main attraction of your love in the mess
of this shadow-shamed world. But we confess
that in our search for satisfaction
We tried to twist the script, flip the switch and started a chain reaction.
Generation upon generation, your creation, turned our backs on Your illumination.
And now we need a second chance, cuz we don’t understand
how we became secondhand darkroom builders
Instagram filter masqueraders whitewashed tomb decorators.
We are Pharisees with kerosene writing your eulogy and kindling
our own black-hole fire funeral pyres.
In our pride we fight to light our own way, by our own will
we set the night aflame
but it only leaves us darker, colder still.
But then...
the Light-Giver, dived deep below history’s river,
reversing the course of the curse of gravity,
this undertow of entropy that was drowning humanity.
This divine Light awakened behind the gleaming eyes
of a powerless peasant boy in Bethlehem.
This King of Light put on skin and locked himself in
to this carbon-shell jail cell.
And he was chained so we could be free.
He was betrayed so we could belong.
He was slain so we could believe.
He was laid in a tomb to roll our stones away,
so we can say, “Hello L-O V-E.”
His grave was empty so that we could be forgiven and filled
with His spirit and raised to reign with Him forever, in the light of his grace.
So as we gather today, would You emerge us from the blackness of the eclipse
to once again display the light for which You formed us?
As your creation responds to your revelation,
hear our words and our hearts testifying
to You, the spark-flying, hope-shining, love-igniting Light.
Let this congregation find voice to worship the radiant three-in-one,
whose name is love,
who rises in our lives like the victorious Sun
overcoming the horizon to redeem the night.
Father God, our light. Holy Ghost, our light. Christ, our light.
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Credits
Writer, director, voice: Don McCaleb
Director of photography, editor: Jim Kallemeyn
Additional videographers: Wes Broadhurst, Skylar Ogren