by Christine Sine
Last week I purchased a couple of grow lamps for my increasingly spindly and anaemic looking succulents. I am amazed at the change in them in just a few days. Their spindly stems are still the same, but green leaves have turned red and gold and pink. They are drinking in the light and finally flaming with the richness of their true colours. How sad that it took me so long to notice how deprived they were.
I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life. (John 8:12 NLT)
These words of Jesus to his disciples ring through my mind as I look at my succulents today. I wonder how often I too am deprived of my true colours and of the fullness of life God intends for me because I step away from the light of Christ and don’t even notice it.
What keeps us in the light of Christ?
The natural response to this question is: reading the scriptures and praying. And of course that is right. We all need the disciplines of scripture study and prayer to nourish us and fill us with the light of Christ. However I wonder if there is more to it than that. Walking in the light of Christ is not just about getting the right information from the scriptures, it is about applying it too.
You might say my succulents had all the information they needed to thrive. They looked healthy, they were growing vigourously, but they were still light deprived. Their colours were dull and uninteresting compared to the vibrancy they were meant to have.
What amazed me is how quickly their colours revived. The reds and golds and pinks were still their, waiting for the light to reveal them. Perhaps I am stretching the analogy a little here, but it seems to me that their colours are like a light hidden away.
No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father. (Matthew 5:15,16 NLT)
How often I wonder do we seem to be growing and think we are healthy yet we lack the vibrant colours God has woven into our being? And perhaps the vibrancy of our colours needs us to shine with good deeds in order to be fully revealed.
Are your colours dull and uninteresting because you have not applied the light that God shines on you? What are the good deeds God is asking you to perform so that your true colours can emerge and those around you will praise God as a result.