THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE

THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE We do not , we cannot, "know" God. Neither can we speak for or to God. We often flatter ourselves that we, creations of God, can do both. That claim, that pretension, is vanity, vanity, vanity. Nothing but vanity . We do not "know" our own essence, much less can we know we God's. We are staked and stoked with life, with "life's" form, with earthly life's substances, for a fleeting season. At season's end, our stake and our stoke are repossessed, taken back, remitted. It is at the end that ever more clearly, the ecclesiastical Preacher proclaims: "vanity, vanity, all is vanity." Eccl.12:8 Upon our earthly remission, we leave residue in our wake, evidence of our sojourn, material or spiritual . What is mainly and most significantly left is our memory, our idea. That memory, that idea is idealized in our various offspring. Offspring are not cosmic collateral damage; instead, they are our successors, our fruit, our legacies and our legatees. All of our "offspring" are neither biological, nor material. Much of that blessed "offspring" is spiritual. We are blessed to conduce, to nurture, to engender, such other "offspring" unknowingly, through love, by love. One candle can light others, be it one or many. The light is God. The candle is man. We two make one. "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine! Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine!"