16th February 2017

If I did have a bucket list, near the top would an entry which reads: Northern Lights. The green rivers of light have long fascinated me, and I would love to see them from the front door of some Icelandic igloo. Apparently the lights peak every eleven years, and 2024 is the next promise of a spectacular lightshow. But that is still eight years away, and there is a possibility that I may kick the bucket, before I can tick the bucket list.

Lucky for me however, I have already seen a lightshow that no polar-presentation can rival, and so can die a happy man even if my passport never bears the Customs stamp of Iceland. For the Book says that one of the privileges of being on the receiving end of grace, is that we may ‘declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light’.

And that light is wonderful, and even more spectacular than that caused by the collision of solar particles and atmospheric gas. For the light described by the Book is the result of the collision of divine grace, with human chaos, and creates a lightshow that flows with truth and love and life. A ‘marvellous light’ says the old King James Bible. And marvellous it is. For all who see it, and know it, have no need for any bucket list, because the proverbial bucket can only be kicked for a moment, not forever.

DM 16^th Feb 2017