Light

I found some old note cards hidden between the pages of my Book of Mormon as I was reading the other day. Written on the cards were verses of scripture and some of my own thoughts about light. I'm not sure why, but light really began to intrigue me a few years ago. I'm not just talking about the physics of light, but really, the deeper meaning of light.
I remember starting to truly contemplate it while I was on my mission as it related to the gospel, to my investigators, to my responsibilities as a member of the church and as a missionary, to intelligence, understanding,truth, purity, vision, hope, and Christ himself.
I can't think of light without having the vision of a beautiful African woman I met in a camp for internally displaced people in the Great Rift Valley of Kenya. She and her family had been driven from their home after the 2007 post-election riots and violence, and were living in a patchwork tent of sticks, and pieces of plastic tarps and bags. She invited a group of us into her tiny shelter and told us about her life, her children, her battle with HIV, and her hopes for the future. Someone asked her what her most valuable possession was and she pulled out a small blue metal lantern that had been given to her as a humanitarian gift. What a profound impression that moment left on my mind and heart. How simple a thing to be so grateful for--light. And it wasn't just the physical glow of the flame in the lantern that meant so much as what I believe it represented. That light represented sight, vision, and hope. That light was not only what allowed her to see in the darkness of her piecemeal home, but figuratively through the darkness of trouble and despair. It was what illuminated her path and gave her greater vision of the bright future that she so desperately wanted for herself and even more for her children. It was that light that allowed her to see the words on the pages of tattered books donated by volunteers who had given her another gift of light--understanding and knowledge.
Does light mean that much to me? And is that light, in every sense of the word something I treasure as one of my most valuable possessions? Just something to think about.