Reflecting the Son's Light

As someone who could spend hours looking into the night sky, I often find that God chooses to reveal things to me about His character and the vastness of His power through the expanse of the heavens.

As humans, we see everything around us only when light is able to bounce off of the object and reflect the image to our eyes. The greatest example of this is the moon, which we can see almost every night shining brilliantly in the sky with bright white, yellow, or orange depending on the season. The beauty of the moon often causes us to forget that on its own, it is no more than an asteroid, a lifeless rock floating in space, until the light of the sun transforms it into the shining light of our evenings.

As Christians, we are like the moon. On our own we are no different than the millions of humans on the planet, but when we allow Him to transform our lives, we become a beacon in the dying world, shining with His life and love to those around us.

The moon rarely looks the same every night as it changes through its phases. While the moon moves through space, the sun shines on it in different angles causing it to shine anywhere from its full potential to barely even appearing to our eyes. When we stay diligently in the presence of God and accept His plan for us at the "perfect angle" we are able to reflect Him best. But when we move out of His presence and stop allowing Him to flow through us, our light slowly diminishes until we are no longer reflections of His glory.

The greatest tragedy comes when we as Christians allow either our own selves or the world to eclipse God in our lives. When the moon comes between the earth and the sun, the world is no longer able to see the light of the sun. The moon is darkened and stands in the place of the sun. As Christians, when we see the talent and works that God does through us we are tempted to look at everything He has done through us and say "wow, look what I did!" forgetting that we are merely vessels and reflections of His power. When this happens, we lose our ability to reflect Him to others. and the world around us is no longer able to see Him in us, but instead sees a selfish and prideful human being.

The other thing that can happen is when the earth moves between the sun and the moon. This lunar eclipse causes the moon to not shine properly because the earth is blocking the light from the sun. When we allow the things of the world to creep into our lives and when we let sin appeal to our fleshly desires, we find that they overcome Christ's importance in our lives. We soon find that our fleshly desires have eclipsed our hunger for God and we no longer reflect Him, but rather the trappings of society.

We are created in God's image. Are you allowing Him to transform your life and shine through you, or are you mimicking the things of the world instead and attempting to reflect the world's standards? (Romans 12:2) Don't allow sin to darken your potential. The moon is a testament to the greatness of the Sun, showing none of its own glory but magnifying the glory of our Sun. Make your life a testament and expression of glory to the Son. What are you reflecting? 

Bebo Norman expresses something similar to this in one of my favorite songs, called "Disappear". Before I go on stage in the theatre or even before Sunday morning worship, I have to remind myself that the applause and reactions are not a testament to me or because of anything I have done. On my own, I do not shine at all. Allow yourself to disappear as people see His reflection. Here is the chorus and second verse.

I want to hide in You
The Way, the Life, the Truth
So I can disappear
And love is all there is to see
Coming out of me
And You become clear
As I disappear

I don't want to care about earthly things
Be caught up in all the lies that trick my eyes
They say it's all about me
I'm so tired of it being about me