The Beast of Ten

by Beth Brower

“But life does not always offer understanding; it offers a road to continue traveling,”

“But life does not always offer understanding; it offers a road to continue traveling,”

“There is much light in this world, Ember. It can be found in many places. It can be found in the pages of a book.” “What do you mean?” I’d asked. She smiled and simply said, “Look for that light which illuminates the soul.”

Light has always been a topic of great interest to me. I love that itbis explored in great detail, comparing it to darkness, its opposite.

“We are all given pain,” my mother had said when she was dying of an insidious infection. “It is our great gift. And none are spared in the giving. The Lights see to that.”

Pain and sorrow are a gift of sorts, for without them we would not know joy.

“Because things that were not built for darkness cannot contain it without great pain.”

I have felt great pain when ive rejected the light ive been given. If i let too much time pass before rejecting the darkness I've let in, and try to regain that light I lost, I fall into despair.

Cut the darkness away, and every path becomes clear. Even the impossible.”

Cutting the darkness away is cutting the fear away.

“You begin by denying value to whomever you wish to destroy. For once they doubt their value, hope simply drains away through their cracked worth. A much simpler way to claim souls.”

How clever of the destroyer.

“He told me that, at some point, each one of us would have to wrestle with the Lights, our hearts naked and exposed, and come away with the painfully honest understanding of where we stand before the Court of Heaven and whether we will do what we are called upon to do.”

Every person's personal crossroad.....

“I don’t know the prayers of the Virtus Third,” he whispers in my ear when my crying has turned into a quivering sigh. “But I do know the prayers of the Intuit, and they’re yours as long as I breathe.”

Prayer, sincere prayer, gives us hope when all seems lost. It's God's way of letting us know He is there, and will help us get through life's tragedies.

“But I do know that these lanterns wouldn’t be half so remarkable were they not set in darkness. Dispelling darkness is the province of light.”

Darkness is the absence of light.

“Light is the only thing that grows stronger when darkness deepens,” he continues as he goes back to his work. “It is the way of things.”

And I realize I am coming to understand, to a fuller extent, how beauty ministers to the heart in a way nothing else can.

So well stated ; beauty definitely speaks to the heart, and we look for it in almost everything we do.

“You can’t fight darkness with darkness, Sperro. It will never work, not in any lasting way.”

only light can dispel darkness……

You don’t get to decide, says the fear. “I do,” I refute, my breathing getting faster and faster. “I will not fear. I will not fear. There is no place for it here.”

How often am I overtaken with fear?

“You can’t rip yourself into little pieces and give them away. You must learn to remain whole and let the Lights work through you. Some tasks do mean giving of yourself, but in a way that doesn’t make you unable to finish them.”

We cant walk faster than we are able and must trust that it is enough. God doesn't expect anymore than that from us.

“Darkness does not let its former captives go easily. It must try to destroy them first, to pull them once again into oblivion.”

This is why we need the Savior.

but weariness will carve its place, and grief is never cheated.

.....so very true!