Violet!

Violet is a bright Traveling Light. Violet Permell, that is. Her mission is complete at a women's day shelter. She is now being guided to start another transformation. I’ve never seen such light! She warms and lightens any weary soul.

As I sit in the women’s day shelter I notice how unfortunate that place reeks of homelessness. Freshly painted walls!!! Grey. New chairs!!! Grey metal. Round conference tables. Grey. The place exudes a business environment that says, “this is not personal, it’s just business.” Sadly, it is “just business” in a place that screams for personal!!!!

Then, Violet steps in as she launches out to give a friend, Vanessa (another Traveling-Light), a warm welcoming embrace. To Violet it’s personal. One person at a time. You have no light? She lights you up. Are you low on light? She gives you some of hers – she can do that because The Light never runs out.

I ask her, “Are you an ambassador?” A title given to the women (2) who work at the day shelter to assist women coming in. Women who are loaded with bags of hopelessness – heavy burdens of regret and loss. She immediately responds, “No! I’m a resident!” In other words, she’s part of us. All of us.

Violet is beautifully coiffed with a slightly spiked hairstyle, admitting it was a wig. I had no idea because everything about her is organic and alive. Everything she wore, she said, she did, how she moved was in unison with the True Light.

As we talk she begins to neatly layout napkins on a round, grey conference table and then brings out one-by-one her make-up as she places them purposefully on the fresh palette of napkins. Her face was already glowing and shone to be beautifully brown and awesomely made. Yet, there she was setting up a workspace.

She then begins to sing along with the worship music playing in the background. Earlier, I had observed the women's faces in the day shelter looking distressed, anxious and sad but now a “Traveling-Light” had entered the room – a light called Violet. The previous somber faces began to come alive as she spoke out to various other women all the while radiating light – His Light.

She shares with me photos of her granddaughter of Norwegian, Jamaican, and Mexican ancestry. She shared some of her writings on Facebook as well.

As she continued prepping for her makeover from beauty to glory, she sings out-loud with the background worship music, having to stop talking with me because, “I love this part…” Singing aloud in praise of The Father.

A spirit of joy continued to fill the room.

Earlier that morning the Spirit told me to, “write about 'Traveling-Lights,’ “ those who walk in His Light. Then by divine appointment Violet steps into my space. It was as though a reel of film is playing the “samo-samo” when a new section of film had been spliced onto it. Changing the present and thereby the future.

At first, grey rooms that were dreary were still grey but now a grey filled with a warm glow. It was supernatural. It was The Light working through her.

I’m certain that before Violet had received the Light of Jesus, she already had a countenance that was warm and charismatic, a personality characteristic that anyone would have been drawn to. But then after having left her presence that “it” would be gone, faded away. That was her personality.

A passing fancy.

Yet, now with The Spirit abiding within her those who are blessed to be in her presence take “something” away they couldn’t have taken away before. The Light. It is felt as something tender, kind, and eternal – "It" was now His and her sincerity, His and her joy with a spiritual confirmation that there is hope after all - even in a place that speaks hopelessness.

For me, it was a spirit of thanksgiving because she was a better writer than I was. She exuded more Light than I did. Yet, I could nonetheless revel in the knowledge that He made us all different for different purposes.

I had long since stopped desiring, coveting, or comparing myself to others. Knowing that whatever God has blessed me with me has a purpose and is valued just as much as any other “Traveling Light” for the Kingdom of Heaven.

We (that means you) – the “Traveling Lights” – are all blessed and highly favored by God because of what Jesus Christ did for us all on the cross and also because the love the Father has for us.

Violet in no way ever came across as haughty or prideful. She was a joy to behold. Her spirit of Light blessed my day exceedingly and abundantly – and it will for many more days to come. I personally took something away because it was not about Violet – it was about The Light shining through Violet.

Continue to shine His Light, and be a Traveling Light for the world!