SUBMERGEഉദാഹരണം

The Light of the World

Do you ever look up at the moon? I’m not talking about glancing at it quickly; I’m talking about stopping to stare at it and study it. The moon can be extremely bright on a dark night, especially outside of the city lights. As we learned in elementary science class, the moon does not create an ounce of its own light. The moon illuminates the night because it reflects the light from the sun that has dipped below our western skyline yet still makes contact with the moon's surface above us.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:14-16 that we are the light of the world. We are like lamps that are placed in the middle of dark rooms. When that happens, we provide light to the whole room. If a room is dark, a lamp placed in the middle of it will have a big impact. Just like the lamp in a dark room, we are to let our lights shine in front of other people so that they can see and glorify God. Bringing light into darkness is awesome. It changes what we see and how we see it. Let’s go back to the moon.

Sometimes the moon can be so bright that I can go into my backyard and work on things at night. The night is dark, but the moon shines an impressive amount of light on our world below, just like the lamp does in the dark room. Just as that moon creates zero light but reflects the sun's light on a dark world below, we also create zero light on our own but reflect light into a dark world around us. The light we shine reflects from Jesus. When we spend time with him in prayer and reading scripture, when we worship him through singing, and when we serve others because we love them as we love ourselves, we become an object that is in the right place to reflect the light of Jesus to our world that needs light.

In Ephesians 5:14, Paul quotes the prophet Isaiah, “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” We can’t reflect Jesus if we are not living in relationship with Him -- if we are asleep. But if we are awake, walking in step with Jesus, we can reflect his light to a dark world!

Reflection:

Just like the moon has different phases (full, half, quarter, new) and is in different positions that don’t reflect as much of the sun’s, we can find ourselves in similar situations in our relationship with Jesus. Do you feel like you are in a position to reflect Jesus’ light to the world around you? How do you get out of position to reflect Jesus’ light?

Where are the dark places around you that could use the light of Jesus? How could you reflect Jesus in that space?

Ken Behrens
SNU Director of Academic Services