Light For All

Friday, ‎September ‎2, ‎2022

Good morning, Lord

Verse of the Day: Acts 26:20 but declared first to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem, and throughout all the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance.

Memory verse: Romans 12:1: Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.

Today's reading: PSALM 137-139 1 CORINTHIANS 13

Light For All

I was 34 years old when my first man child was born. Today, he turns 35. He was half-grown when he was born- or so we thought. He was 22 and a half inches long and weighed 8lbs. and 14oz. We were wrong. He is now 6'5'' and 250 lbs and wears a 14 boot.

I would hurry home when he was just a baby so excited about getting to feed my boy. You never forget certain things like the first time you get to wear baby food carrots spit all over your shirt-- back to work. I was a youth minister at a local church and I always wore a white shirt. So, after lunch I went back to church with carrot spit-spots all over the front of my shirt. I was so proud...

He had the biggest eyes and the biggest ears. I was so worried that he would never grow into those ears but he did and now is too good-looking for his own good-seriously.

There was an elevator in the church gym and one night after church was over, some of us were standing around the elevator door talking and our 3-year-old boy was pushing the button and the door was opening and closing. We tried to catch him to make him stop but someone would say something funny, we would look away and laugh, and he would see the chance and push the button again as the door was opening and closing. Then I heard his little blood curdling scream from somewhere way off. He had stepped into the elevator behind our backs and we did not see it. He had gotten off the elevator upstairs in the pitch-black hallway and was horribly terrified. I ran up the stairs and turned on the lights and swept him up in my arms and just held him and tried to console him. I do not know how long it took him to calm down but it was traumatizing for the little guy.

God has watched each of us in our own ways--push the up button to some new thrill or promise of joy--to see us step off into the dark and have the door close behind us. It took longer for some to scream for help than others and some are still wandering around in the dark--and do not know they are in the dark. The enemy appears as an angel of light(2 Corinthians 11:14) and they think they are in the right place but are as lost as a ball in high weeds(Billy Graham quote). Shedding light is our job. We shed light---we do not always speak light--sometimes we need not speak light at all but our actions led by God's spirit shed a tremendous light.

Thinking about my child at the mercy of that dark hallway still gives my heart pause but nothing like what God felt when Jesus was at the mercy of the darkness and God could not stop it. He could not stop it because of His plan for his only son to be sacrificed by the darkness--in the darkness--surrounded by a generation of darkness. He was bound by His commitment to restore us to a place where He then would be able to sweep in in response to our screams of lostness and wrap his arms around us and set us free from the terror.

It is hard to even tell the story of my child in that darkness. But God feels infintely more compassion for each and all of us--otherwise, how could He have given over His own son to be sacrificed by and in the darkness.

God, the Father of that only, perfect Son, made absolutely certain that His light was available to all in darkness...

...because He loves us...

Father in Heaven,

Forgive me for still wanting to push buttons in this world-and pushing them. Break my heart to carry Your light to the folks in darkness.

Father of true light and life,

In the name of Jesus the Christ,

Amen