Prayer for grandmothers

Father, my room is small. This apartment building. The doctor's office once a week. Church on Sundays. The grocery store on Tuesdays. That is my world. You did not ask me to shine on a stage. You asked me to shine where I am. I have spent years feeling guilty that my circle is small now. But You are not measuring the size of the circle. You are asking whether the light is on. Lord, keep my light on. In the elevator with the new tenant who has not yet learned anyone's name. At the pharmacy counter where the young clerk is being yelled at by an angry customer. At the small group on Wednesday where I might say one true thing if I am brave. This world is not waiting for me to win an argument. It is waiting for a small steady light it can see by. Let me be that. A reading lamp by a single chair. Enough to keep one or two people from stumbling on their way through the room. That is the shining You ask for. Amen.