Today’s author is Melanie Hill, Interim Director for Children and Family Ministry at PoP.
This fall, I lost a dear friend to pancreatic cancer. She fought the cancer for eight grueling months. Desperate to do something that would shine some light on her days filled with chemo and testing and hospital stays, I asked if I could be her library gofer. She lived just down the street from our St. Louis Park library, but very soon after her diagnosis that regular errand down the block was one she just did not have energy for.
She gave me her library card (which I still have, and treasure) and once a week or so I picked up the books she reserved and also picked out a few picture books. I’d pick up the books to return and then leave a bag of new books on her porch.
My friend loved picture books—as a writer and a reader. And she found that they spoke to her in a special way while she was ill. It was such a meaningful thing for me to look for books that I thought might bring a smile, a moment of grace into her weariness. She insisted it was a gift to receive these bags of books on her porch, but I sometimes felt a little guilty, because I felt like I was doing it for me. I was glad they brought her joy, certainly, but I think I was pre-emptively working through my grief as I worked over the stacks in the library trying to find just the right books, knowing I was going to lose my friend and writing partner soon.
I regularly brought her wordless picture books—especially Aaron Becker’s gorgeous books, which tell full stories using art, not words. She gave me his newest one: You Are Light. It’s a board book, with cutout circles and colorful inlays that change color as you turn the pages. This one is not a story, but a blessing. There are words and they are gorgeous. This is the light that brings the dawn…it begins. And then it traces the light through creation—the light warms the sky, sips the sea, grows the grain, makes leaves that shade the earth, brings blossoms, lights the moon… It is so, so lovely. And then on the last page (spoiler!) it says, This light is you. And you are light.
The first time I read this gift from my friend, I cried. Sometime the tears come when I look at it even. It sits now on a sunny shelf in my office, so I can enjoy the colors and think of my friend, who was such a light for me and to so many others, as well.
This light is you. You are light. The light of the world.
Take this as your blessing today and go forth and shine.