We had this cool brass candleholder when I was a kid, with a big glass shade encasing the flame. We didn’t use it all that often (mostly when the power was out), but over time the brass and glass became blackened and dull, and rather than reflecting light, the flame could barely be seen. The light was the same, but the vessel containing it had fallen prey to pollution.

Even when we have God’s spirit and are reflecting God’s light, we have to watch out for the impact of living. It’s almost impossible to be completely unaffected by the world we live in, so we must constantly be alert. In the olden days, if a lighthouse wasn’t constantly cleaned and maintained, the sea salt, minerals, dust, and smoke from the flame would cake on and dim the light, rendering it useless.

Without light, nothing living can survive. One of the last pieces of God’s wrath that this world will endure is complete darkness, which will prevent anything from growing and be a breeding ground for fear and hate, a representation of this world’s true state without God (Rev. 16:10-11). These are the stakes for us, and this is the light we’re meant to reflect as a “city on a hill”. Are we reflecting the Light, or has our light dimmed?

May YOUR light SHINE!!