Great God of Light: A Morning Prayer for All Day

New every morning is your love, great God of light,

and all day long you are working for good in the world.

Stir up in us desire to serve you,

to live peacefully with our neighbors,

and to devote each day to your Son,

our Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord.  Amen.

— page 878, The United Methodist Hymnal, current edition

Debi pointed me to a new song.

I was her pastor.   I was on the New Hymnal Interpretation Team for our Conference. The publishing company had hosted five of us at a several day training event in Nashville, and I had taught at five all-day seminars on how to use our New Hymnal in Christian Education.  I was really full of myself.

Debi walked into the church office, sat down and pointed me to a new song in the new book.  The chorus went, “In him there is no darkness at all.  The night and the day are both alike.  The Lamb is the light of the city of God.  Shine in my heart, Lord Jesus.”  Immediately it become a favorite of mine.  “I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light” is the title.  I still think of it as Debi’s Song.

“God is light,” says 1st John 1:5.  In John 8:12 Jesus says, “I am the light of the world.”