Icons and Spirit

My host in Moscow was a professor of linguistics and a devout member of the Russian Orthodox Church. In the bedroom where I stayed, she had faithfully arranged a dozen icons on a wall. On the facing wall, at the same height, she had placed maybe 20 family photos. I found the juxtaposition inspiring.

I have come to believe that God is revealed to us more through the spiritual struggles and stories of family and friends than through the stories and legends of the saints. I believe that God works in our lives, giving us dreams and visions, guiding us and chiding us and blessing us along the way. Certainly, too, the world has been enriched, especially by the spiritual autobiographies of people from Augustine to Annie Lamott. But God calls us especially to look into our own story, our own memories, there to find the spirit.

God is revealed to us sometimes in icons--but especially in those photos of our family and friends and all that lives behind their pictures. My host's grandfather was murdered by Stalin--her father jailed--released to fight for 4 years in the tank corps during WWII--her mother at 84 is still energized and heroic. Our special photos speak to us of the long journey of family and friends to find meaning and happiness,love and hope.

Those photos too remind us of how people betray the image of God within them. Family and friends and we ourselves, sometimes, distort love and abuse one another.Sin and evil abide in us all.

But some days,some moments, sometimes the light of eternity shines through us. And some days, some moments, sometimes, the light of eternity has shone through others. That light has been light to us in times of terror and darkness on our journey.

As the light of God shines through other souls, we receive light for the path and then we sometimes become light for others. The light we receive and the light that guides us and the light we share is not constant like the sun. Nor is it fleeting like a shooting star. This light is intermittent, irregular, sometimes unavailable when we feel in desperate need, sometimes a surprising interruption when we feel complacent.

So yes, for some folks icons open their hearts and minds to the mystery of God. But is it not true that God comes to us, intermittently, through our family and friends, through our life's journey and so through those precious photos that tell something of who we are?