Light of My Life
If your home is anything like my home, you probably have areas in it on which you have no interest in shining light. It is also likely that these “desired to be less than dimly lit” areas are not always in the most inconspicuous locations. Sure there is the corner of the closet, or the attic space locations. Under the stairs, behind the washer and the overstuffed garage are also examples of home scape that has no need to see artificial lighting.
But how about the cabinet toe kick space in the kitchen? Wow! Got some stuff growing under there. Ever look inside those floor vents around your house? Wear a mask! How about shining some light up under that stove top hood? Charred food particles, some year old grease drippings and the occasional dog hair that floated a little too high all collected in one convenient location. There are, without doubt, areas around my home where I have no interest in spreading light.
That being said, I have a question - why do we light our homes? As illuminated above, it is not to light the house itself or even areas within the house. Maybe we want to light the people in the house. I have a lot of people in my home. I cannot recall a time that I have turned on a light to see them. I have used a focused light on a knee or a hand or a head to check out a scrape or puncture wound. But I don’t think I have ever turned on a light to see somebody. We tend to turn on lights when sitting around the house. It is the normal action. That is unless we are sleeping. Ah yes! I have turned on plenty of lights to wake somebody up. But again, that was not to see them but rather to force them to see the start of the day… earlier than desired in most instances!
So, if not to light the house itself or to light the people in the house, why do we turn on lights in our homes? I propose that we illuminate our homes in order to provide light to the people living there. Light is a tool. It is useful to people. It helps us get stuff done. It helps us see what we are doing. It helps us see what we have done. We do not light ourselves. We light the project at work on the counter. We do not light the table. We light the page which is being written upon that lays on the table.
The same is true of our spiritual light. It is not intended to light ourselves or to even lighten the world around us. In his well known scripture, Matthew tells us what Jesus said on this subject. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (vs 5:14-16)
Put in wording based on our more contemporary example:
You are a lamp in this house. No one turns on a lamp and then puts into a garbage bag. They put it on an end table and it shines so that all in the house may have light. Likewise, make your spiritual light useful to those around you, so that they may see the good works that God has given you power to accomplish and they will give glory to God, who is in heaven and is counting on you to shine forth in this house.
Our light is not intended to illuminate ourselves. It is not to bring light to the things of this world. Our spiritual light, the light of our lives, is intended to be a tool, used by God, to illuminate the works He has ordained to be accomplished through our lives. This is how we achieve the great purpose of life itself - to bring glory to God.