Why wait for Heaven? Those who seek the light are merely covering their
eyes. The light is in them now. Enlightenment is but a recognition, not
a change at all. Light is not of the world, yet you who bear the light
in you are alien here as well. The light came with you from your native
home, and stayed with you because it is your own. It is the only thing
you bring with you from Him Who is your Source. It shines in you because
it lights your home, and leads you back to where it came from and you
are at home.
This light can not be lost. Why wait to find it in the future, or
believe it has been lost already or was never there? It can so easily be
looked upon that arguments which prove it is not there become
ridiculous. Who can deny the presence of what he beholds in him? It is
not difficult to look within, for there all vision starts. There is no
sight, be it of dreams or from a truer source, that is not but the
shadow of the seen through inward vision. There perception starts and
there it ends. It has no source but this.
The peace of God is shining in you now, and from your heart extends
around the world. It pauses to caress each living thing, and leave a
blessing with it which remains forever and forever. What it gives must
be eternal. It removes all thoughts of the ephemeral and valueless. It
brings renewal to all tired hearts, and lights all vision as it passes
by. All of its gifts are given everyone, and everyone unites in giving
thanks to you who give and you who have received.
The shining in your mind reminds the world of what it has forgotten, and
the world restores the memory to you as well. From you salvation
radiates with gifts beyond all measure, given and returned. To you, the
giver of the gift, does God Himself give thanks. And in His blessing
does the light in you shine brighter, adding to the gifts you have to
offer to the world.
The peace of God can never be contained. Who recognizes it within
himself must give it. And the means for giving it are in his
understanding. He forgives because he recognized the truth in him. The
peace of God is shining in you now, and in all living things. In
quietness is it acknowledged universally. For what your inward vision
looks upon is your perception of the universe.
Sit quietly and close your eyes. The light within you is sufficient. It
alone has power to give the gift of sight to you. Exclude the outer
world, and let your thoughts fly to the peace within. They know the way.
For honest thoughts, untainted by the dream of worldly things outside
yourself, become the holy messengers of God Himself. These thoughts you
think with Him. They recognize their home. And they point surely to
their Source, where God the Father and the Son are One.
God’s peace is shining on them, but they must remain with you as well,
for they were born within your mind as yours was born in God’s. They
lead you back to peace, from where they came but to remind you how you
must return. They heed your Father’s Voice when you refuse to listen.
And they urge you gently to accept His Word for what you are, instead of
fantasies and shadows. They remind you that you are the co-creator of
all things that live. For as the peace of God is shining in you, it must
shine on them.
We practice coming nearer to the light in us today. We take our
wandering thoughts, and gently bring them back to where they fall in
line with all the thoughts we share with God. We will not let them
stray. We let the light within our minds direct them to come home. We have
betrayed them, ordering that they depart from us. But now we call them
back, and wash them clean of strange desires and disordered wishes. We
restore to them the holiness of their inheritance.
Thus are our minds restored with them, and we acknowledge that the peace
of God still shines in us, and from us to all living things that share
our life. We will forgive them all, absolving all the world of what we
thought it did to us. For it is we who make the world as we would have
it. Now we choose that it be innocent, devoid of sin, and open to
salvation. And we lay our saving blessing on it as we say:
“The peace of God is shining in me now.
Let all things shine upon me in that peace,
And let me bless them with the light in me.”