The Light

Artist Norman Rockwell

How old are you little girl?

I’m sixth, she says through missing teeth

Why have you come forward?

Tears rolling down her cheeks

Difficult to speak…she says,

I want Jesus to live in my heart so,

I won’t be afraid, you know?

I’ll have someone who is always with me

The dark-time is the worst-time…

That’s when the shadows come…you see,

If Jesus comes to live in me, I’ll never ever be in the dark

Even, when, the lights go out…

Because, He is light…

That’s very wise…

Let’s pray. Repeat after me.

Lord Jesus come into my heart and fill me with your love and light…

Live in me all the days of my life and take the dark-shadows away…

Fill me with your Holy Spirit so I can grow and obey…

This I ask in Jesus name, today. Amen

It’s been fifty-nine years since I asked Jesus to come and live in my heart…

Many miles, many tears, many heartaches through the years…

Jesus never left me not one time…

Thank you, Jesus, you are mine

And I am yours…

How can I not love you…?

I love you more and more with the passing of time,

I always will…it’s your love that heals…

My love is patient, my love is kind…it is not burdensome, it is not blind…

My Love never fails…

What are you seeking? What heartache are you keeping?

In the dark-shadows I’ve seen you weeping…

Open your heart and let the light come in…

~Jesus <3

~Marla Shaw O’Neill June 8, 2019

1 Corinthians 13 New International Version (NIV)

If I speak in the tongues^[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,^[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Footnotes:

• 1 Corinthians 13:1 Or languages

• 1 Corinthians 13:3 Some manuscripts body to the flames