Guiding Lights of Love
Table Talk
Setting the Table
You are welcome here. Come just as you are, bringing whatever is on your heart today. Take a few breaths, and allow yourself to be present in this moment.
"When love is our guiding light, we can break through barriers to be of loving service to the world."
― Marianne Williamson
“O Star of wonder, star of night,
star with royal beauty bright,
westward leading, still proceeding,
guide us to thy Perfect Light.”
― “We Three Kings” written by John Henry Hopkins, Jr.
Matthew 5:14-15
You are the light of the world. A city on top of a hill can’t be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket. Instead, they put it on top of a lampstand, and it shines on all who are in the house.
Food for Thought
On the narrow strip of the Outer Banks shore sits a mostly desolate corner of the earth where the rising tides flow on undeveloped sands; the sun sets to unobstructed horizons; the night skies still glow with undimmed starlight. This hidden treasure is Drum Inlet, and for most of my elementary school years this small section of coast served as our home away from home when my family would join my grandparents for a weekend of fishing. We would fish all day, morning until dinnertime, and at times would even fish through the night.
Have you ever been stargazing? Have you ever been out on a clear night, where there isn’t a lot of extraneous light pollution, and you feel like you can see every star in the sky?
I remember one particular night while fishing, I looked up at the sky and was completely in awe. I had never experienced such overwhelming beauty. The sky felt massive, and I, sitting under the stars alongside the ocean, was struck both by how significant and insignificant I seemed to be. I just sat there, completely blown away by what was before my eyes - millions of stars completely covering the sky.
Many before us have done the same. Likely from the beginning of time, people have looked at the night sky in wonder and admiration, for guidance and direction. The stars serve as indicators of time, place, space, and orientation. Ancient farmers used the stars to let them know when it was the best time to plant and reap a harvest. Navigators would follow stars and align their travels by the patterns they recognized in the sky above them. Some even believed that when you die you join the stars – becoming an actual star yourself!
Perhaps that belief was shaped by something we recognize to be true about those we love, about those who have been guiding lights for us: that their light goes on and on beyond their earthly life, shining brightly for all to see, filling our world with light, love, and wonder.
Just as the stars help us find our way, so do those whom we have loved and who have loved us. With the light of their love, they guide us, they lead us, they illumine our paths in this life and the next.
Today, on this All Saints Day, we celebrate those individuals in our lives who have nurtured us and guided us – those who have contributed something of wonder and beauty through soul and body to our world. And we give thanks for those who have shone brightly enough over the course of our lives that they have revealed something of love to us. Through them we have found ourselves oriented in the direction of love, or have become at least more aware of its brilliance. Because of them, we better understand what it means to allow our own lives to shine in a way that gives light and love to others. We are light in the world - stardust fully alive with the brilliance and breath of God.
Step outside on the next cloudless night, look up, and soak in the beauty and wonder of the starry sky.
Take a moment today to give thanks for someone who has been a guiding star in your life - lift up a prayer for them, dedicate a journal entry to them, or simply give thanks for them in your heart.
Blessing
God of creation,
Thank you for the stars you have placed above and among us.
Give us comfort as we look to them,
and grant us wisdom as we strive to be that light for others.
A little Table Talk for your table...
List at least one person who has been a guiding star in your life.
Talk together about your guiding stars. Share why that person was so special and what they did that left such an impression.
Discuss how we can be guiding stars for one another.
Try taking it to the Kids Table...
Go outside and look at the night sky with your kiddo.
Ask them what they think about the stars - what they are, what they’re made of, how they were made, what they mean, etc. (write down their priceless answers).
If you want, use an app like SkyView to explore the universe in a whole new way!
Meet our Welcoming Voice!
Lin Story-Bunce is a North Carolina native, and lovingly calls Greensboro, NC home. She earned a Masters of Divinity from Wake Forest University and has served a wonderful and thoughtful congregation at College Park Baptist Church since 2009, pastoring to families and their faith development. Most of all, Lin loves the moments she gets to connect with her family - snowboarding with her wife and keeping up with their four kiddos and two energetic pups. Lin is a teacher, preacher, dreamer, and procrastinator who, if you ask her youth group, has a knack for trying to do way too many things in far too little time.
To hear more from Lin throughout the week, follow along on our Instagram!