Let my little light shine...

Living in a northern city means that winter has days with very little light. It is still dark here at 8:00 a.m. and will be dark again before 5:00 p.m. When we lived in Alaska, the shortest days meant the sun came up at 9:30 and we were in the dark again at 3:30. Of course, summer is the opposite. In Alaska it was daylight for almost twenty-four hours, even if the sun dipped below the horizon for a few minutes. Here we have twilight and can easily see even after 11:00 p.m.

Light is a wonderful and powerful commodity. Focused, it can start fires or cut through metal. Filtered or diffused, it can make art out of ordinary objects. Everyone needs it, and the blind crave it. The older I get, the more lamps I want in my work area. Light is precious.

When God gave Moses instructions for the tabernacle or Place of Meeting, He included illumination. Dark desert nights were one thing, but this tent was covered with animal skins so it would be hard to see inside it, even in daylight.

God told Moses, “You shall also make a lampstand of pure gold; the lampstand shall be of hammered work. Its shaft, its branches, its bowls, its ornamental knobs, and flowers shall be of one piece. And six branches shall come out of its sides: three branches of the lampstand out of one side, and three branches of the lampstand out of the other side. . . .”

This light was more than practical. It was formed like a tree, reminding them of the tree of life in the garden of Eden. It also spoke of God’s light. David wrote in Psalm 36:9: “For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light.”

The motif or symbolism of light fills both the Old and New Testament. In Isaiah 49:6, God uses it for the Messiah: “I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, that You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth” and in John 8:12, Jesus identifies Himself as that One: “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

The Bible ends with a description of heaven’s glories and the new Jerusalem. Revelation 21:23 says, “The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.”

In the meantime, I’m supposed to reflect that light, the light of Christ who lives in me. Paul writes to the Philippians (and to me) saying, “Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain” (Philippians 2:14-16).

This is a tall order. Try living without complaining. Try never getting into a dispute. God gives tall orders, yet He says that living in this way makes me “blameless and harmless” in a world where most people are “crooked and perverse.” He also says it makes me shine like light.

Of course the opposite to light is darkness. In Scripture this is one description for the condition of those who do not know God or walk in the light of His truth. In Acts 26:18, God says to Paul that He is sending him to preach the gospel to the Gentiles “to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.”

Other verses contrast light and darkness as two separate kingdoms. Colossians 1:13-14 says, “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.”

Those without light cannot relate to those who have it, a big reason that makes this a tall order; we don’t live in the same place. However, another reason this is difficult is that should there be any darkness in me, anything that resists God and refuses the path of light He asks me to walk, then those in darkness will quickly spot it. Darkness is part of what they do know so my effectiveness to “shine like light” is diminished each time I grumble or get feisty. Worse yet, even though those sins belong to the way of darkness, those still in that kingdom will be quick to criticize or hold me accountable for my sin, and even blame me for their unwillingness to be drawn to the Light.

Darkness and their sin hold people away from God. Sadly, my sin can do it too. Yet darkness doesn’t have the power that light has. No matter how black a coal mine, or a photographer’s darkroom, or the inside of a tent, or any starless night may be, only one small candle can chase it away.

Making this practical is really simple—just quit complaining and shine.