Let the 'Son' shine into your life for a promise of a new day | Mark Katrick faith column

Mark Katrick
·2 min read
The Rev. Mark Katrick is a guest columnist for the Newark Advocate and an ordained minister.
The Rev. Mark Katrick is a guest columnist for the Newark Advocate and an ordained minister.

It was one of those mornings that I just couldn’t get up. As usual, my cats had their inner-alarm clocks set to 5:30 a.m. for breakfast, a heapin’ helpin’ of wet food. Wiping the sleep from my eyes, I sat down to my laptop’s keyboard to read devotionals and write in my prayer journal.

Instead of cooking some oatmeal for breakfast, I laid back down in bed for “just a couple of minutes.” Before I knew it, it was almost 9 a.m., and it felt (at least to me) like half the day was gone.

My mother had a tried-and-true method of getting and keeping me out of bed. She’d open up every Venetian blind and “Let the merry sunshine in.” Then, she’d fry up some eggs (sunny-side up, of course), put bread into the toaster and let the aroma waft towards my bedroom.

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The combination of radiant light, delicious, nutritious food waiting on the table and lively conversation with Mom was too much to resist. Well-fed in body and soul, I was off to face the day with my recommended daily allowance of Vitamins A and D (and Vitamin C, if you include a cold refreshing glass of OJ).

Among the vast collection of rare oldies in the jukebox of my mind, there’s a song by the Magic Lanterns that invites us to “Let the Sunshine In”:

I kept my heart within a box, within a box of boxes, and there behind a hundred locks my lonely heart did lie. Then a voice in the back of my brain said a big hello through an echo chamber, with a key and a little refrain that I had to know I must remember, remember, remember, I must; Let the sunshine, let the sunshine, let the sunshine in.

In the sacred space within our hearts, there are Venetian blinds where Christ’s radiance is let out into our lives. Even when it’s dreary and gray outside, this “light that shines in the darkness” (John 1:5) breaks through the clouds and is more than enough to awaken us to the hopes and possibilities of a brand new day.

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The spiritual food that awaits is 100% guaranteed to keep you from turning back over in bed. Instead of toast, you will be fed with “Living bread that comes down from heaven” (John 6:51).

The love of Jesus that lives within our hearts is not meant to be kept within a box of boxes. It’s meant for everyone, no matter who you are and where you are on life’s journey. So keep awake and alert to his Divine-human presence throughout the day, and sing the refrain that must be remembered and let out into the world.

Let the “Son” shine, let the “Son” shine, let the “Son” shine out! Then, “Let your lights shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

Mark Katrick is a pastor and spiritual guide.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Mark Katrick faith column: Let the 'Son' shine into your life