Good morning.
“Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life,’” (John 8:12) and in John 9:5 He said “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Now that Jesus is not in the world anymore, He passed the light on: “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, 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 who is in heaven,” (Matthew 5:14-16).
The passage in John 9:5 above is preceded by the following: “We must work the works of Him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work,” (John 9:4). It is clear that Jesus felt urgency about the work to be done and He certainly didn’t let grass grow under His feet. “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written,” (John 21:25).
Our light shines in any case. We don’t have a choice in it. Jesus said ‘you are the light of the world’. He didn’t say, ‘be the light if you feel like it’. The Lord has pre-planned the works He had in mind for us. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them,” (Ephesians 2:10).
The works Jesus did was in His stride. He basically walked along ‘minding His own business’, so to speak, and then the opportunities for miracles and teaching arose. He, however, was prepared for them, since He started His day in unity with His Father and walked in the Spirit all the time, which is why His works happened to be great. He had great faith.
Our works should also be in our stride. They may not appear to be great to us, but to the Lord they are great. “And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward,” (Matthew 10:42). Let us therefore be light to the world. I always try to make people feel special at work - add a little light and joy to their day. When kids’ medicines are collected I say things that lift them up and always call for a high five. The little faces blossom and when they come in next time I can see the expectation in their eyes. When we did street children outreaches in Cape Town, we always played with the kids, causing joy that they would think back on and then remember that Jesus played with them. We may have been some of the rare opportunities of joy and fun for them. I also try and make my adult customers as well as my staff feel special. Whenever the opportunity arises I make known that they need Jesus and that Jesus is special to me, so they know that this joy comes from Jesus. How about you?
We don’t need to necessarily preach the gospel. We could just tell what happened to us, live the joy that is in us, and the light will shine.
Lord, please show me how to let my light shine.
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