It’s the Christmas season and decorations are popping up everywhere. It’s always a beautiful time of year, even here in Austin, TX where temperatures can hover in the 80’s.
We has enormous, craggy Live Oak Trees here. One of my favorite embellishments of the season is the wrapping of these trees in lights from top to bottom. Each branch from large to small as well as the massive trunk is painstakingly outlined in strands of tiny, twinkling lights. These trees are lovely on their own–no doubt about it–but you could pass them day in, and day out and never pay them any mind. I must have traveled by the one I am thinking of hundreds of times on my trips across West Sixth Street but I never saw it. That changed one Christmas. Completely enshrined in light against the dusky evening sky, it was magical. No one could pass that tree without noticing it’s beauty and majesty. It was totally transformed by the glow. The next day, it was still wrapped in lights, but when I passed again the power was shut off and the sunlight revealed only the tree back to relative obscurity.
It made me think of a devotion I had read a few days earlier. Jesus Calling, Enjoying Peace in His Presence by Sarah Young, is written as Jesus speaking directly to the reader. The text for November 13 includes this passage:
“You and I are intertwined in an intimacy involving every fiber of your being. The Light of My Presence shines within you, as well as upon you. I am in you, and you are in Me, therefore, nothing in heaven or on earth can separate you from Me!”
As Christians, we are infused with the light and the glory of Christ (Colossians 1:27, Isaiah 42:6). When we forget to tune into Him, we walk around invisible and unremarkable. We are still His children, but the power’s shut down and the glare of the world’s light obscures the spark inside of us.
How can we shine?
During Bible times, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai after spending time with God, his face glowed with a light so bright that the Israelites demanded he cover his face with a veil. The Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 3:18 relates this story to our situation:
“So, all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.”
Like Moses, spending time with God–in His Word, in prayer and in fellowship throughout the day–allows us to veritably glow with His goodness! When we become conscious of His Presence and Power we sparkle in an undeniable way. As we allow Him to totally engulf our humanity from top to toe, no one can pass by without acknowledging His glory!
Jesus is the Light of the World. Let Him shine in you!
Blessings!
Cool Like Christ 