part 2

this morning matt and i met again. we read all of 2 corinthians for this meeting, and another passage stuck out to me about light.

"And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is Spirit."

ah, how often do we say this - ITS ALL ABOUT GOD!!! its not like we were good enough to shine on our own, or had the power to light our own little flame. no, God is light. that's it. and who are we? we're just reflectors of His glory. how does that feel? when i think of reflector, i think of that little thing on the back of a bicycle. its nothing on its own, just a piece of plastic. there's no glory in it at all. its kinda nerdy and stupid, you know? but it serves a purpose, and without the light, there's no point in that little reflector at all. when light hits it, though, it does its job...it reflects that light back towards other people. and people see it. and it saves your life. that's what we are. once the Light hits us, we just reflect it out into the world, and they see it. they can't choose to not see it. its just there.

so, yeah...kind of a stupid metaphor, but true, right? when i hear the word reflect, i think of one other thing. i think of the moon. yeah, i'm into space. i wanted to be an astronaut when i was in middle school. i did all my reports on the space shuttle or stars or, when it was a history project, one of the apollo missions. so, because i'm sort of a space nerd (yeah, i watch the NASA channel on tv sometimes), i think of the moon. the light we see from the moon isn't the moon's light. its all from the sun's light. the moon doesn't produce any light at all on its own. all of the light we see comes from the sun.

i don't know why i'm so into this at this point, but i keep thinking about how awesome God is, and how frail we are. our purpose as Christians is to stay close to the source, so that his light may reflect off of us. and you're right, this is a good "religious" thought, but it is so much more than that. God is light. he's rescued us from darkness and brought us into his marvelous light. isn't that flat out amazing? like, to think we were once in darkness and God called us into light. ah, that just blows my mind. what's it going to be like when we die, and we're standing at the gates of heaven with absolutely nothing to our name. we look up to see Christ, and then we look over our shoulder and see darkness....absolute darkness. we know we deserve to be in that darkness, and we know that the light and brilliance of Christ is more than we could ever ask for. we look to Christ again, and he's got his arms open ready to embrace us. ah, it's insane. why would someone give everything He had for someone who couldn't even really give anything back at all. why would someone suffer and die for someone who was going to, time and time again, reject their Savior and follow after the things which had them in bondage in the first place. that's what Christ did for us, and don't you think that's enough? like, its crazy how much love that is, to save us from what we deserve, and it wasn't because of anything we did, only his love. ah, that's so awe-some. it demands awe and worship and we could sing the song of salvation forever and ever. and yet, he's given us so much more than just salvation. he's given us blessing upon blessing upon blessing in this life, and there's so much more in the life to come. not only has he given us blessing, but he's given us responsibility. now, why would you give someone who has no skill whatsoever a task as great as what God has given to us...

not only has God called us out of darkness into light, but he has also made us the light of the world. he has given us the privilege of reflecting his radiance upon the world. he's given us the task of shining into the darkness and calling others to Himself. ah, gosh...that blows my mind too! why would God use us to reflect his glory? wouldn't it be easier for him to just shine upon us, you know...or to create some other being to do that, or even to have the angels do it or something...some being more equipped than us and more responsible should be given that task. but no, God's a crafty one. he's pretty smart. he's got a different plan than the one that makes sense.