Articles
Shining
Several years ago my wife and I spent a week scuba diving in Jamacia. We dove several days, several times a day. We got invited to do a night dive on the 4th night.
Coral reefs are absolutely beautiful, but little did we know that what was beautiful in daylight was brilliantly beautiful when illuminated by our diving lights at night. The colors were amazingly brighter, everything was much more clear and beautiful at night. I can't explain it, as the waters were crystal clear down to 110 feet where we were diving. But everything seemed to have a grayish tint during the day and brilliantly colored at night. If you had a 17" colored TV in the 60's and have a 55" HD TV now, that would be a fair comparison.
Using that to illustrate a spiritual thought is a stretch, but here goes...
When Jesus is only illuminated by the light everybody on the surface sees, He isn't seen as He really is. It's not until we dive deep into Christ, His love, mercy, and grace, and we shine our lights on Him that His glory can be fully appreciated. Everything about Christ is beautiful, but He doesn't get the illumination He deserves. Sometimes Jesus is only partially visible, because our lights are off, not working very well, or we are hoping there is enough light for people to see Him without us.
Jesus uses an example clearly understood by the people of His day, who used candles to light their homes at night. He says not to hide the light, but put it high on a candlestick, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
Matthew 5:16 NIV
If people are going to glorify our LORD, they need us to illuminate Him, brilliantly bright, up close and personal in our lives. We can't expect people to understand who He truly is if they only see Him dimly lit from a distance. Christ says "[we] are the light of the world" (Matt. 5:14) so if we don't light Him up, Who will?
