Saturday, March 21, 2015

Light Pollution

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It’s one o’clock in the morning, but I’m driving – driving for hours and hours.  I pass the grocery store, then the gas station, until I’m finally miles from any hint of civilization.  Some would call it “the middle of nowhere,” but I’ve arrived at my destination.  I step out of the truck, look up at the night sky, and immediately my eyes are met with billions upon billions of bright lights, shining like the very angels of Heaven.

Then I wake up.

I climb out of bed and stare out of my bedroom window.  But, to my disappointment, there is not a star to be seen; only dozens of street lamps, gleaming with a hazy dullness in the foggy night. 

This is light pollution.


Okay, okay, so that never actually happened.  It was just a clever illustration to segue to the point of this post.  Even so, we’ve all experienced light pollution to some extent.  In some places, because of all of the artificial light, it’s nearly impossible to see the natural lights that the Maker of the universe has placed in the sky.

In the same way, we can often become light pollutants, preventing those around us from gazing upon the glorious Light of the Bright Morning Star. 

(Revelation 22:16, 21:23)

You see, we are to be lights shining in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation (Philippians 2:14-15), but sometimes we’re shining the wrong light.  There’s only one light that is acceptable: the light of Christ.  This light is impossible to produce of our own doing, but is the natural effect of Christ living in our hearts.  Every other form of light is unacceptable, and only prevents the True Light from having precedence.

If those around us are not seeing the light of Christ shining in our lives, it is likely that the “light” we’re displaying is only bringing attention to ourselves.  This real purpose of being a light, however, is that others would look and immediately see not us, but Christ alone (cf. Matthew 5:16). 

In this sense, we are to be like a mirror, simply reflecting the Person of Christ without attempting to be seen ourselves, similarly to the way the moon reflects the light of the sun.  

Let us all be so focused in our love for Jesus Christ and for other people that we reflect – and become – His one true light, not polluting the earth with the dullness of our own self-centeredness but instead pointing solely to Who He is!