Illuminate: Living in the LightSample

God is light.

Because the world chose darkness over light, God sent Jesus to bring and be light to the world.

Now we are called to live in the light by loving and following Jesus.

But there's more.

We are called to actually be light ourselves.

What?? How is that even possible?? It's hard enough to just live in the light by faithfully getting to know Jesus more and more each day. How can we actually be light in a very dark world?

The only way we can be light is to stay so closely connected to Jesus that our lives begin to reflect him. That's how light works, right? By reflection?

With God, it works differently. His light comes from within himself because that's who he is - the source of all truth, goodness, and love. He doesn't reflect something else. He just is himself.

When Jesus says to his followers, "You are the light of the world," he means, "Your job is to reflect me and my Father to other people. By reflecting us (light), you in essence are being light in a dark world."

We aren't the light ourselves. It would be a grave mistake to ever think that's the case. (In fact, that's how everything went wrong in the first place.) But we know the light, follow the light, love the light, have been saved by the light, are filled with the light - and so we can reflect that light all around us.

Wow. Just WOW.

That's utterly amazing. That's a privilege none of us deserves. We deserve darkness. Instead, we have God. So go shine, reflecting him all around.

TO THINK ABOUT:

Who has reflected God's light in your life? How did they do that?

How do you reflect God's light to people around you?

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