Our blog assignment today was to write about the 'Children of Light'. We were given full freedom to take this blog wherever we wanted to with it. Today we visited the oldest cemetery in Athens. I don't particularly like cemeteries because they are filled with sad people and mournful headstones. I saw a different side of this today, though, we very lavish tombs and family plots. Here, cemeteries seem to be a place to celebrate a life well lived and families end up in the same plot.
I saw a few plots with young children, which I could write about, but that just makes me sad. One thing I noticed there was the strong religious influence of the tombs. Almost all of them had crosses, many had angels, etc. I spent some time thinking about God and the afterlife, especially when I saw the plots of young children. When I heard the blog topic was children of light, I figured I would end up talking about the innocence of a young life lost, but I want to push myself to talk about something less obvious, and find a deeper meaning here.
Children of Light basically mean enlightened children by God. They are innocent, pure and virtuous. Just as pure as the children of light are, so is the wickedness of the children of darkness. These phrases seem to break up the world into black and white, good and evil, virtue and wickedness. Contemplating the afterlife and sin while at the cemetery got me thinking. God is so mighty and powerful, and yet he forgives our sins. We are undeserving of his forgiveness, and still he forgives. It is impossible for a human on earth where sin is everywhere to be a pure child of light. We all have moments of purity and moments of darkness.
What about our moments of purity? Even in our most pure moments, we still do not come near the good of heavenly light. Even at our best, we are still sinners. For example, we compliment others to make them feel good...but at the same time we are looking for some kind of affirmation for ourselves. We tell a friend their hair looks great-yes we want them to feel good, but somewhere inside, we are secretly asking them to compliment us back, or to be thankful to us for the compliment. We want to be acknowledged for our selflessness...which negates the selflessness of an act. By being acknowledged, our ego is stroked, which is in our own self-interest.
I think about this while I am at the cemetery and wonder how in this world we can be so imperfect, even in our best moments, and God would still want us. I like to think of the children of light as kids so young that sin and temptation have yet to stain their souls, or change them. They in their youth are the only ones of us pure enough to be considered for this title. The rest of us can make this connection consciously and spend the rest of our lives trying to reach that purity again but we will never get close. Just the effort we put in to it is enough for God though. And he is bigger than all death, all sin, all temptation and all sorrow.
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| An Angel Watching Over This Family |
I saw a few plots with young children, which I could write about, but that just makes me sad. One thing I noticed there was the strong religious influence of the tombs. Almost all of them had crosses, many had angels, etc. I spent some time thinking about God and the afterlife, especially when I saw the plots of young children. When I heard the blog topic was children of light, I figured I would end up talking about the innocence of a young life lost, but I want to push myself to talk about something less obvious, and find a deeper meaning here.
Children of Light basically mean enlightened children by God. They are innocent, pure and virtuous. Just as pure as the children of light are, so is the wickedness of the children of darkness. These phrases seem to break up the world into black and white, good and evil, virtue and wickedness. Contemplating the afterlife and sin while at the cemetery got me thinking. God is so mighty and powerful, and yet he forgives our sins. We are undeserving of his forgiveness, and still he forgives. It is impossible for a human on earth where sin is everywhere to be a pure child of light. We all have moments of purity and moments of darkness.
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| Angel and a Cross |
What about our moments of purity? Even in our most pure moments, we still do not come near the good of heavenly light. Even at our best, we are still sinners. For example, we compliment others to make them feel good...but at the same time we are looking for some kind of affirmation for ourselves. We tell a friend their hair looks great-yes we want them to feel good, but somewhere inside, we are secretly asking them to compliment us back, or to be thankful to us for the compliment. We want to be acknowledged for our selflessness...which negates the selflessness of an act. By being acknowledged, our ego is stroked, which is in our own self-interest.
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| A Child of the Light-Age 7 |
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