The Last Light in the Window
Updated: Sep 2
“Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning.”Luke 12:35
The house across the way is dark now, except for one window. A single lamp still burns there, soft and steady against the night.
You notice it while drawing the curtains or while locking the door. It is not bright enough to disturb anyone. It simply remains.
Some lights are left on for practical reasons: a late return, a child who sleeps uneasily, the habit of not wanting a room to feel abandoned. Others stay lit for reasons harder to name.
Jesus spoke of lamps that should not be hidden, and of oil that must be kept ready. He also knew the long hours of waiting, when the only thing left to do was to keep a small light burning. He did not ask his friends for a fire that would light the whole street. He asked them to stay awake with what they had.
Most of us end the day with something still unfinished. A conversation that did not reach its end. A worry that will not settle. A task that must wait until morning. We cannot resolve everything before sleep. We can only leave one light on: a quiet sign that not everything has been abandoned, and that something continues even while we rest.
The Church knows this sign. In the sanctuary a small lamp burns when Christ is present in the tabernacle. It does not explain itself. It does not fill the building with light. It only says that he is here, and that the night has not been left empty. The Mass itself ends, the people go home, the doors are locked, and still that one flame remains. The mystery we have celebrated does not go out with the last hymn.
You turn off the last switch in your own house. The window across the way still glows.
Let it. Tomorrow will ask for your strength again. Tonight it is enough that one small light remains.