Shine

“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. People do not light a lamp and put it under the bushel basket; rather, they put it on the lampstand, 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 in heaven."

-Matthew 5:14-16

“Light” as a metaphor is something I generally associate with Christmas. The days get much darker, and the holiday light displays inside and outside our homes make it an obvious symbol for the season.

But I would argue that autumn makes light equally poignant.

This is the season of backyard bonfires, jack-o’-lanterns, and Friday Night Lights. On Halloween night, our neighborhood is flooded with hundreds of children wearing glow necklaces and glow bracelets that parents have forced upon them in an attempt to make them visible to any cars brave enough to venture onto the roads.

We notice light differently when the days begin getting shorter.

Robert Frost captures something of that feeling in his poem “October,” when he asks the season itself to slow down:

O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.

Later, Frost asks October to “retard the sun with gentle mist” and begs the day to be brief in its passing. He knows the season is moving on, the leaves are falling, and the daylight is fading. So the light that remains seems especially worth noticing.

Maybe that is one reason Jesus’ words feel so appropriate this time of year: “You are the light of the world.”

The example that Jesus uses is so wonderfully ordinary. A lamp doesn't really have to do anything extraordinary. It simply has to give light to the room it has been placed in. It just is what it is. It's a lamp, so it shines.

Maybe our calling works the same way. We don't have to save the world. We do not have to have the perfect answer for every person who is hurting. We just have to be ourselves and be open to God's calling.

All we have to do is bring some light to the place where God has put us.

A kind word can be light. Generosity can be light. Sitting beside someone who is lonely can be light. Welcoming a stranger can be light. Making somebody feel like they belong can be light.

In a season when the days are growing darker, perhaps that is one way we can let our light shine.

Not by trying to overpower the darkness.

Just by faithfully illuminating the little corner of the world God has given us.

Rev. Ryan Young