"It makes a circle!” my three-year-old grandson declared as he played with a flashlight he pointed at the ceiling. I chuckled over how he was showing off his command of “shape” words. If only he knew how the study of light has baffled and intrigued scientists for ages! Maybe, if he takes a bent toward art, he will find enjoyment in portraying light patterns.
Recently, as I prayed over and grieved a dark situation with people I know, I sensed the Lord pushing me to read again the “light” verses of
First John. I’d already been thinking about “light,” after my husband “romanticized”
our evening meal of leftovers with a candle in a Haitian-made clay pot with cutouts, a gift from a friend who did mission work there. Initially, it reminded me of this scripture:
For God who said, “let
light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have
this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from
God, and not from us. (2 Corinthians 4:6-7).
As a “clay jar” I try to reach out to others with God’s
grace and light. But sometimes it's hard to shine before others. I think that’s why
I recently felt a God-nudge to reread the counsel of the apostle John, written
before his old-age death:
If we claim to have
fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the
truth.(1 John 1:6)
If anyone says, “I
love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar.
For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love
God, whom he has not seen. (1 John 4:20)
By the way, “brother” is a gender-neutral term for someone
in the family of God, whether or not they’re blood related. I find these verses
very sad because they highlight the alienation that results from
broken relationships.
But it doesn’t have to be that way:
But if we walk in the
light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the
blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)
I’d rather be in that type
of a “circle of light”!
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