What does it mean to live an "illuminated" life?
The word “illuminate” comes from the Latin word illuminare, which means “to light up” and is defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as: “to fill with light; to make clear; to make illustrious or resplendent”. The idea of an illuminated life, therefore, is to live a life that is full of light, open with a clear purpose, and resplendent, which means shining brilliantly or full of glowing splendor. The idea is to not only be full of light and purpose, but to then shine that light out into a dark world in all it’s brilliant splendor. I have two analogies I like to think about to illustrate this idea:
First, I think about illuminated manuscripts like the two below. The first is from a collection of the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford. It shows a page from a copy of the Pentateuch made by hand in Portugal in 1470 A.D. In order to ensure accurate preservation of the words of the Bible, Jewish scribes would keep painstaking records of word count, letter count, the middle letter and word of each book, etc. as they copied the text of the Scriptures. Instead of just marking up the text with random tally marks or counts, the scribes would often use micrography—the art of making words or numbers look like pictures by writing them very small—to both keep accurate count, and also to emphasize the beauty and value of the text they were copying by their art.
(Image credit: Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford)
The second image shows the beginning of the book of Genesis from a pocket Bible made in the 1200s, and is part the collection of the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. It shows the art of illumination, which was common in the Middle Ages in Europe. Before the invention of the printing press, books were made by hand, most commonly by monks in monasteries. A scribe would carefully copy the text, and then an illustrator would adorn the text with small decorations in margins, and around letters that marked important divisions, such as the beginning of books or chapters. They commonly used gold and silver leaf, as well as inks made from shells or other substances that would catch the sunlight, thus giving the pages an “illuminated” look as though they were lit from within. Although in later centuries, copies were made and sold to wealthy individuals or universities, originally these copies were made solely for the use of the monks in the monastery and not for public show. Again, the ideal was to emphasize the beauty and value of the text being copied.
(Image credit: Museum of the Bible, Washington, D.C.)
In both of these art forms, the common theme is emphasizing the beauty and value of the text—most often the Scriptures—being copied. The scribes and monks were careful to show utmost devotion and respect for—and not to do anything that devalued—the precious book they were creating and, by extension, the Source of the words conveyed therein. I think the idea translates well to life. Life is already a precious gift, and the Christian life, in particular, is a rare and precious gift indeed. It should be our aim to do nothing to devalue or deface this precious gift, nor it’s magnificent Source; but to do everything we can to emphasize the beauty and the value of a life lit from within. In Titus chapter 2, Paul gives instructions on living godly lives to various categories of people: old, young, men, women, and slaves. He sums it all up with these words: “…so that they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect.”
The second analogy I like to think about when thinking about what it means to live an illuminated life is a stained glass window, like the one in this photograph I took at St. Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh, Scotland:
Stained glass is one of my favorite art forms—it is beautiful and breathtaking and makes you feel the image and not just look at it. To make the window, the artist cuts pieces of colored glass and puts them together to make a picture. When the window is lying down flat, the picture is dull and much of the detail is lost; but when the window is put in it’s proper place and the light is allowed to shine through, it is brilliant, vivid, and casts a glow on everything near the window. Again, the idea translates well into life. Our lives are like stained glass windows, we are constantly crafting our window, but many times we just leave it lying flat, and it looks dull and the beautiful details of our lives are largely lost; but if we craft our lives and allow the Light to shine through them, then we provide a brilliant and beautiful picture of what a life well-lived can be. We have the ability to either dull the light or let it illuminate our lives so that others may benefit. In Philippians chapter 2, Paul gives a beautiful, “illuminated” picture of the humility of Christ and a plea for his readers to imitate it. He sums up his plea by reminding his readers in verse 15: “so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world”.
As eternal souls journeying in this world for a brief time, we have an amazing opportunity to be lights in the world, brilliant and vivid and hard to look away from, and to draw people to the Light that illuminates us from within. We have the opportunity to adorn our lives so as to emphasize the beauty and value of a life well-lived, and draw people to the Source of that beauty and value. Obviously, as Christians, the primary way we do this is by living the example and teachings of Christ and His inspired Word that He left us. However, I believe there are also other, smaller ways that we can add to this. They are not always necessary, but they can add to our personal lives, and they can also be the first thing that draws someone to us who maybe is not aware of or sensitive to the Light or the Source yet, and may open up channels to have conversations about the source of the Illumination in our lives. This is a topic for a future article, but for now, I hope today’s discussion has helped you gain a deeper appreciation for the beauty and gift of life and a greater motivation to put more effort into letting your life be truly Illuminated from within.