I heard of a beautiful Mandarin Chinese phrase this week that is usually translated into the English word ‘welcome.’ You might use it when someone comes to your home or when someone enters your store.
That does not capture the beauty of its literal meaning, though.
‘Huanying guanglin’ means something like ‘to meet with joy’ and ‘the light comes in.’
Imagine every ‘welcome’ being infused with that kind of thought and openness.
An appreciative, warm, open-armed receiving of the light that has come.
It seems likely that the more freely and joyfully we meet it, the more light can come in.
It reminds me of the Lord’s explanation in D&C 50:24: ‘That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light, and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day.’
If we joyfully welcome the Light, He can more abundantly bless us with light.
If we close the door to His coming, or close our hearts to His offerings, we will miss the light that He brings and the attendant knowledge, illumination, power, growth, and understanding it allows.
When we anticipate and receive with gladness what He offers, He is able to give us increasingly more.
When we fear His light and avoid or block Him from entering, it is usually because we misunderstand what He offers.
Sometimes we are comfortable with our darkness.
But what He has to give is always light. And ‘whatsoever is light, is good’ (Alma 32:35).
Always worth a joyful meeting (and, perhaps, a little discomfort).
Trusting that allows us to feel the ‘huanying guanglin,’ the joyful welcoming in of light that He provides.
