Patsy Clairmont - Catching Fireflies: Teaching Your Heart to See Gods Light Everywhere

Catching Fireflies

2009 by Patsy Clairmont

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotation in printed reviews, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Thomas Nelson, Inc. titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail SpecialMarkets@ThomasNelson.com.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from New American Standard Bible, 1960, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scriptures noted NIV are taken from The Holy Bible, New InternationalVersion 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.

Scriptures noted KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. Public domain.

An effort has been made to locate sources and obtain permission where necessary for the quotations used in this book. In the event of any unintentional omission, a modification will gladly be incorporated in future printings.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Clairmont, Patsy.
Catching fireflies : teaching your heart to see God's light everywhere
/ Patsy Clairmont.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-4002-0238-6
1. Christian women--Religious life. 2. Light--Religious
aspects--Christianity. I. Title.
BV4527.C5327 2009
248.8'43--dc22

2008044838

Printed in the United States of America

09 10 11 12 13 QW 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To a firefly of extraordinary brilliance...
Ellie Lofaro

contents

ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE SR.

JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER

Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in
a conspiracy of love!

HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

If children brighten up a home, its probably because
they never turn off the lights.

UNKNOWN

One disadvantage of being a hog is that at any
moment some blundering fool may try to make
a silk purse out of your wifes ear.

J. B. MORTON

UNKNOWN

JAMES KELLER

I was like a deer in the headlights. There are just some days
when you and your partner arent clicking. For some reason,
we had to fight through every element in a negative way.

GARRETT LUCASH

UNKNOWN

There they stand, the innumerable stars, shining
in order like a living hymn, written in light.

N. P. WILLIS

As you exit the plane, please make sure to gather
all of your belongings. Anything left behind will be
distributed evenly among the flight attendants.
Please do not leave children or spouses.

UNKNOWN

PAUL SIMON

There is nothing wrong with change, if it is in
the right direction.

WINSTON CHURCHILL

When Thomas Edison worked late into the night on
the electric light, he had to do it by gas lamp or candle.
Im sure it made the work seem that much more urgent.

GEORGE CARLIN

We are told to let our light shine, and if it does, we
wont need to tell anybody it does. Lighthouses dont fire
cannons to call attention to their shiningthey just shine.

DWIGHT L. MOODY

In the
Beginning

Im a light girl. No, not low tonnage. I wish.

What I love is illuminationmorning sunrays sneaking around the corners of my window shades, encouraging me to rise up; the yellow glow on a fireflys keister dancing in the distance; or lightning streaking across a night sky like an insistent exclamation point. If it lights up, I like it. With the exception of red bubbles on top of police cars beckoning me to chat. Quite honestly, I just dont have the time.

Im sure my fascination with light-bearing objects is why I love the book of Genesis, especially the part where light was birthed.

When God said, Let there be light, there was! But take note that He didnt design the light holders the sun, moon, and starsuntil four days later. Have you ever considered that, during creation, light was bounding about willy-nilly until it was corralled into designated positions? That fascinates me. I wonder if it looked like an explosive aurora borealis.

I would have loved a front row seat for that light show. I think.

Then again, in Scripture, people responded by falling on their faces when they encountered a heavenly messenger, witnessed a miracle, or heard Gods voice. They had a compelling reason for responding that way, Im sure. We humans derive a great deal of our security from what we know, and generally speaking, were not sturdy enough for the other world, full of its wondrously fierce mysteries.

Remember when Moses climbed to the mountaintop and asked to see God? The Lords mercy covered Moses as He passed by because Moses wasnt prepared for what he would have seen. Oh, he might have been desirous, curious, and even devotion-driven to look on the Lord, but God knew Moses wasnt ready for such a startling encounter.

Majesty, purity, and holiness, to name a few of Gods qualities, are piercing in their perfect state. Our hearts couldnt take the jolt.

Remember Jacob? He wrestled with an angel, and because of that encounter, he walked with a limp the rest of his life.

When angels appeared to people, the heavenly beings greeted those mere mortals with the words, Fear not. They understood that fear would be our first, knee-knocking response.

So taking into consideration that we wouldnt have had the moxie to handle witnessing the first stirrings in the universe, lets stretch our limited minds and try to imagine it. A time when there was no time (what must that be like?), just total darkness (now Im scared), chaos (this feels familiar), and emptiness (I dont do bottomless falls).

Actually, reading that descriptiondark, chaotic, and emptyreminds me of last week, when my sons visiting Jack Russell discovered our laundry basket full of clean clothes. He chewed the support out of my new underwire. I am of the personal belief that Jack Russells were fashioned from the spare parts of pogo sticks. No, Im not bitter, just reflecting on how, perhaps, this Jack Russells interior must resemble creation before God brought order to it.

Alas, I digress. Back to the invention of light.

Lets consider for a moment what happens when the universes scary dark is abruptly interrupted. At Gods command, light crashes through utter darkness, bursting forth as conqueror.

Does that sound superhero-ish? Well, thats my interpretation of how it might have happened. And whether light crashed onto the scene, sauntered in, or flowed like a river, we know this for sure: God spoke, and it was so! Which should be a strong reminder for us about the wallop Gods words carry.

Recently I was thinking about the phrase, Let there be light, and it hit me anew that those are Gods first recorded words. I dont know if that makes them more important or holier than anything else He said, but that reminder caused me to lean in and listen deeply because I dont want to miss the impact of His proclamations.