21 Sep Letting Love Light the Way
The picture of the house was taken at night. The moon cast a soft glow on its weathered facade.
There was no light coming from within the house. The windows were dark. The blinds were tightly closed.
The driveway and walkway were outlined with luminarias; small paper bags that contained a small candle votive. The illumination of the paper lanterns challenged the darkness of the house and the night sky.
“Those lights are beautiful,” Ella said, glancing over my shoulder at the picture.
It was beautiful, but not in the way you might think.
The image was shared by a grieving mother whose son had died by suicide.
The mother shared the image with thanks for friends who had shown up within hours of learning about her son’s death. The friends arranged and lit the tiny votives inside the luminarias—one by one—to surround her family’s house with light.
I looked at the picture and thought of those friends who, like so many of us, probably didn’t know what to do or what to say or what could possibly be needed by the family grieving inside.
But they didn’t let that lack of knowing stop them from doing something.
They showed up.
Sometimes there are no words, but there are still things we can do to let people know we are there.
What a beautiful gesture it is to surround people with the light of love and hope on the darkest nights.