This gargantuan ball we call Earth
twirls on its axis, never stopping.
I’m glued to my point on its surface,
watching as we leave the dark outer universe
and swing slowly, gently into sunlight.
Granulated gray cloud masses
suddenly have rose underbellies—
no! Now they’ve turned to neon gold!
There was a star riding tangent
to the crescent moon; it’s gone,
overwhelmed by greater light.
Gold fades slowly to cream and white
as the last bats fly home,
flecks speckled across the canvas.
The sky turns blue and luminous.
He said that those who walk his path
will shine like the rising sun!
We chase away darkness as we advance,
outshine artificial lights, and gild
reality so that it pumps to life.
We bring growth to plants, winged things.
Space opens up for play and work,
and those who hide in darkness
need to run for cover, sins discovered.
But to shine with power like that
we must have spent time face to face
with Light, the One who lights the world
and makes us radiant, in turn.
We have no light of our own, only
his bright essence of Divine Truth
and Love and Character, completely other.
I sit here in the Presence, begging
to be made absorbent, pleading to become
like that gold orb coming into view,
so full of fire its rays take over
the space between the silhouettes
of tree and walls. Only he can make
a mere mortal shine like that!
Walking around Piatt Lake in the morning brings startling discoveries of beauty, scenes never to be repeated exactly the same way. That’s because the world is turning, wind is blowing, the sky is hosting the rising sun then noonday then eventually evening dusk and night. Each moment is a capture.
Yet the same sun rises each morning! And the same Son is the Light of the world! This is how the disciple John introduced Jesus to his readers:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God. 2 The Word was with God in the beginning. 3 All things were created by him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind. 5 And the light shines on in the darkness, but the darkness has not mastered it. (Jn. 1:1-5 NET)
We are living in a dark world. But as Isaiah said, alluding to Messiah’s coming:
The people walking in darkness see a bright light; light shines on those who live in a land of deep darkness. (Isa. 9:2 NET)
Light is a powerful image throughout Scripture. Darkness is linked to war, distress, and sin. So after two women, Deborah and Jael, were essential in bringing about victory against Sisera, Israel’s enemy, this line was in the song Deborah and the army’s leader Barak sang:
May all your enemies perish like this, O LORD! But may those who love you shine like the rising sun at its brightest!” (Jdg. 5:31 NET)
This comparison is striking: can those who love the Lord God, Yahweh, shine like the rising sun? There is actually only one way to do that. It is expressed in their song: we must love God! To love him, we must know him. And to know him is to walk with him and follow his lead, to hear his commands and obey them. What he has told us matters and doing what he says is actually living life with him:
Your word is a lamp to walk by, and a light to illumine my path. (Ps. 119:105 NET)
And the person who keeps his commandments resides in God, and God in him. Now by this we know that God resides in us: by the Spirit he has given us. (1 Jn. 3:24 NET)
From the Old Testament to the New Testament it is made clear that God’s word is to be our illumination, showing us how to live and stay on the right path. Then in the New Testament we find that God himself will live in us! We have his light in us, and it can shine through us.
For God, who said “Let light shine out of darkness,” is the one who shined in our hearts to give us the light of the glorious knowledge of God in the face of Christ. (2 Cor. 4:6 NET)
His light fills us with what we need: a life lived knowing God through knowing Jesus Christ. We have his light shining in us, and it can actually shine through us. Consider what Isaiah the prophet said would happen when we actually live out what God the LORD, Yahweh, has been telling us is the essence of becoming a powerful light in the darkness:
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter– when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? 8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. 9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, 10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. (Isa. 58:6-10 NIV)
Becoming sunrise in this dark world is not a simple step! It requires walking in the light, as our God is in the light, with complete reversal of normal human reactions to the poor and needy, the hungry and the oppressed—ignoring them, letting them suffer. It changes how we interact in the community of other Jesus followers too:
But if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. (1 Jn. 1:7 NET)
So think about what happens if we do not walk in the light of Jesus Christ. The poor and vulnerable, the oppressed are neglected. In our churches we ignore each other without intimate communication, or we quarrel. The light does not shine.
May the Savior’s light shine powerfully into each of us and change every dark corner into light! Then we, too, will shine like the rising sun!
Linnea's Lines 