Why wait for Heaven? Those who seek the light
are merely covering their eyes. The light
is in you now. Enlightenment is but
a recognition, not a change at all.
Light is not of this world, yet you who bear
the light in you are alien here as well.
The light came with you from your native home,
and stays 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 lit 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 leaves 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 gifts, does God
Himself give thanks. And with 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.
