Brilliant Light
Posted on Aug 22, 2017 by
A friend of mine wrote this, and with the eclipse this week, I find it quite relevant. “We’re kind of like the moon. When we put ourselves before God, all we do is get in the way of His light. We can never totally snuff it out, though. God is much too brilliant. Instead, it is a spectacular reminder of how dark we are without Him. Even when we’re in the worst place, His light still pierces through, graciously redeeming even our darkest state into something remarkable. Even so, only when we set ourselves aside and look to Him, reflecting His light, do we really shine.” –Lindsey Atkins
As I watched the eclipse this week, I watched it at about 99% totality, so there was always a bit of the sun shining. It was so interesting to me how no matter how much of the moon was blocking the sun, the light still shined. It’s kind of like the quote above, no matter how much we put ourselves before God, His light is too brilliant to be snuffed out. We are the ones that ignore the light, we are the ones that make the choice to put ourselves or other things before God. And when we put other things before God, we are reminded how dark we are without Him.
We have seen a lot of darkness in the world in the past weeks, past months. However, we as children of God have the ability to shine His light. When we set ourselves, our idols, aside, we reflect His light and we shine. In John’s letter last week, he challenged us, what are you willing to do? So I ask, what are you willing to do in reflecting the light of Christ?
When we don’t speak out against the darkness, when we are silent, we are not at our best. John is speaking truth when he said, we all have the opportunity to share Christ’s love and stand up for those being oppressed. We cannot be silent, we need to share the love and the light against the darkness that we see in this world. We cannot live in fear of speaking out, standing up, as we are called. I’m reminded this week of how bright that light shines when we are not getting in the way. When we set ourselves, our fears, aside, we reflect His light.
In Christ’s love,
Meghan Harmison
Director of Adult Ministries and Outreach