Staircase to Light — Sunshine In The Middle

I've been thinking about the references to Heavenly Parents mentioned in conference this weekend. It reminded me of this little piece I wrote back in 2011 as part of a book I was writing at the time called "Daughters of Light". I never did anything with it, but I'm curious what your thoughts are after reading this analogy and the subsequent thoughts.

Chapter 4: Staircase to Light

Imagine being suddenly placed in a dark room. You don’t know where you are and you don’t know where you should be. In time, your eyes adjust and you become aware of a faint light that seems to be coming from a distance above where you can see. It’s certainly out of your reach. You cautiously walk forward and your foot hits something. It’s a step. With curiosity and faith, you take a step, and as you do so, more of the light is revealed to you. That one step enabled you to see more. It’s still off in the distance, but as you take a second step the light becomes closer and you realize that you are getting closer and closer to it, but another step is in the way. You take the final step and nothing is in the blocking the light. You can see it, and as you look back, the room that you were in is seemingly illuminated by the same light, you just didn’t notice before. This light shines on the world and through it you can see everything.

Our spiritual divine path is just like this. It’s not straight. It’s not curvy. It’s not a yellow brick road, it’s a staircase. With each step we take, we can see more and more of the light that has been shining there all the time.

The scriptures are there, right in front of us. When we read them, the gospel becomes illuminated. Prayer is always a kneel away, and when we do it with fervent faith, the light comes on and we can see. When we go to church and partake of the sacrament, we are filling our well with gospel light. Other things bring us light, too, and they all stem around the commandments laid out for us by our loving Heavenly Father and his son, Jesus Christ. As we are obedient to Their commands, we step closer to the light and then the world is illuminated for us.

We must take the steps. The light doesn’t just come to us, we must do the work. We must be willing to move our feet, or in this case open our scriptures or humble ourselves to our knees. We must get ourselves to church on Sundays (even if church is at 9:00 AM!) We must look past the ways of the world,, watch our language and stay away from the darkness that follows us if we make poor choices in the people we surround ourselves with or because of the activities we involve ourselves in. We can take steps backwards and as a result move away from the light, or we can take the steps forward into the Light of Christ. The light is ALWAYS there. We are the ones who choose if we’re going to move toward it or away from it.

I’ve often thought about this in terms of the electricity in our home. When we move to the light switch and flip it up, light comes on, but it doesn’t just sense our presence in the room and flip on. We have to do the work. When we do, (barring any natural disasters) the room is filled with light. Our lives can be filled with light almost as easily. The following chapters will help you understand what you can do the step closer to the light that is already there for you.

While reading the scriptures that were part of the Divine Nature Value study I turned to 2 Peter Chapter 1 verse four that says, “...be partakers of the divine nature...” The word “partakers” stood out to me. It’s a very physical term. We partake of the sacrament. We partake of a snack off an appetizer tray. We partake of a glass of water that is offered to us. This scripture implies that we could reach out and pick up divine nature and hold it. It almost makes divine nature a noun. What struck me about this scripture is our charge to take it. We need to CLAIM our divine nature. It’s there. We don’t have to create it or find it. It’s right there for us.

Further, we need to ACT upon our divine nature. God is reminding us that we need to do the work to receive insights from Him. It’s also in present tense. “Be partakers” implies that it’s something we should constantly be doing. It doesn’t say “partake” as if doing it once will suffice. I read this and I’m reminded that we must always “be partakers” of OUR divine nature and have an active role in staying close to God and receiving His light. The following chapters are the actions I’ve taken that have brought me the most light, so I wanted to discuss them with you. Come with me, let’s climb the steps so we can receive the light.