The Birthday of the World

The other day, I was listening to an interview with the author and doctor Rachel Naomi Remen. She is a fascinating person of deep Jewish faith. She has done groundbreaking work with cancer patients, and she herself has had a lifelong struggle with Crohn’s Disease.

In the interview, she shared a story that was related to her by her grandfather on her fourth birthday. It is the story of the birthday of the world. And it goes like this…

In the beginning, there was only the holy darkness, the Ein Sof, the source of life. And then, in the course of history, at a moment in time, this world, the world of a thousand thousand things, emerged from the heart of the holy darkness as a great ray of light. 

But then, something happened… the vessels containing the light of the world, the wholeness of the world, broke apart. And the wholeness of the world, the light of the world, was scattered into a thousand thousand fragments of light. And they fell into all events and all people, where they remain deeply hidden until this very day. 

She said, “Now, according to my grandfather, the whole human race is a response to this accident. We are here because we are born with the capacity to find the hidden light in all events and all people, to lift it up and make it visible once again, and thereby to restore the innate wholeness of the world.”  

I think one of the reasons why I like this particular story is because sometimes the weight of the suffering and need around us can feel completely overwhelming. But here it is actually very practical – look for the light in the world you can see and touch – to look for the good, the beautiful around us at any moment. This calls us to shift from judgment mode – to curious mode…to ever ask: Where is the light in this? 

And yes, sometimes we actually have to draw it out… sometimes we have to reflect that light ourselves… 

It seems our brains are hard-wired to always look for the darkness. Endless news cycles and social media don’t help that. But the truth is, we don’t have to look far to see this other reality.

Today I invite you to take a second look at the people and events in the life around you – even the ones that appear on first blush to be particularly troublesome. See if you can’t find the hidden gems of light in each one. See if you can’t draw them out and perhaps reflect them a little further. 

The gospel of John tells us that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness is not able to overcome it. 

Let us pray: Help us, Holy God, to notice the in-breaking light, to lift it up, to name it, and to rejoice in it. Amen.