Let your light shine

I always feel a bit sad when the time comes to take down the Christmas decorations.  Not only does the house look very bare, but the act of taking the decorations down marks the end of a season of the year which I particularly enjoy.   

Not long after Christmas 2011, Sue and I happened to be in a garden centre which was having a sale of Christmas items, with greatly reduced prices.  Sue is always keen to sniff out a bargain, and we managed to pick up a set of solar powered external lights.  In the run-up to Christmas 2012, Sue came across the lights (which is a minor miracle in itself, as we still have many unpacked boxes following our summer move!)  About 3 weeks ago I took the lights into the front garden and wrapped them round a small conifer.  I set the solar panel to catch the sun (ha ha).

Disappointingly, even though Christmas has now come and gone, we are still waiting for any sign of life from the lights!  I’m not sure whether the lights are faulty, but the fact that we have had hardly any sunshine over the past 3 weeks can’t have helped.  I still live in hope that one day a light will twinkle in our front garden!  As I was thinking about our inactive solar powered lights, my mind turned to the Old Testament character of Moses.

The Bible tells us that Moses had such a close and intimate relationship with God that ‘the LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend.’  One of the results of that intimate relationship which Moses enjoyed with God is that after each meeting, Moses’ face shone!  Interestingly, we are also told that over time, the light shining from Moses’ face would begin to fade.

Jesus revealed himself as ‘The Light of the World.’  He also said to his disciples, ‘let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.’  That is a real challenge to all of us who claim to follow Jesus.  I have feeling that our solar powered lights are not working because the solar panel has not yet received sufficient direct sunlight.  In the same way, we ought not to expect that our lives will shine with the light of Jesus if we don’t consciously spend time in his presence.

We live in a society which seems pretty dark at times.  The light of the love of Jesus is needed now as much as ever.  Food for thought at the beginning of a new year.