Follow the Gleam

Several days ago, a few chance words brought to my mind an old song that I learned in my teen years. It has inspirational words and eminently singable harmonies. We sang it quite earnestly in a high school activity period where girls could join a Y-Teen club affiliated with the YWCA. So, as such things go, I have been humming it over and over—and over and over again!—since then.

The first verse of "Follow the Gleam" speaks of knights and visions and searching for the Holy Grail. (No vampires and paranormal romance for us!) But I especially like the second verse:

And we who would serve the King,
And loyally Him obey,
In the consecrate silence know,
That the challenge still holds today.
Follow, follow, follow the gleam,
Standards of worth, o'er all the earth,
Follow, follow, follow the gleam,
Of the light that shall bring the dawn
      ~Helen Hill Miller, 1920

Not every light that I've encountered along my life's road has been clear and unmistakable. Some lights have been dim, often barely discernible, but because their small rays were so persistent, I could not ignore them. It took me a long time to find the right, satisfying career—I had to follow a gleam. I've made some sad mistakes while searching for the meaning of real love and genuine selfhood—but I've followed the gleam. I spent many years trying to make sense of my spiritual heritage—I am still following the gleam.

Too often, we mistakenly suppose that we will at some point late in life have the answers to "life's persistent questions." Not so. Most likely, answers to the most crucial questions will come at first as a faint understanding, a glimmer of light. Don't be discouraged. Follow it. "The way of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, which shines ever brighter until the full light of day." (Proverbs 4:18)

Marjorie

Scripture quotation from The Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. United States of America. All rights reserved.