How I remember being a wee little girl in Sunday School at North Highlands Baptist Church some 49 years ago. Preschool children, who were yet to be labeled such, met in the basement of that vibrant church where my daddy was the Pastor. We sat in a circle on metal chairs. No toys. No books. Often a flannel graph and always an open Bible. Sunday-upon-faithful-Sunday we learned about the Written and the Living Word of God there in the basement of that Southern Baptist Church in central California. Every week without fail we sang songs about Jesus, and His love for the little children. All the children of the world. I remember well one song in particular and singing the old familiar children's melody with heightened glee,
"This little light of mine, I'm gonna' let it shine .. . This little light of mine, I'm gonna' let it shine. Let it shine. Let it shine. Let it shine ...."
Maybe you have a similar memory. Maybe not. I still have the emphatic sense that I meant what I sang ... as best as a four year old could mean it ... especially the part about hiding it under a bush, and shouting "OH NO! I'm gonna' let it shine ..." Regardless of my best and most sincere four year old intentions, it seemed that my light would grow dim while my body and my mind grew older and bigger.
How is it that somewhere along this journey called life, the sparkle of who we were meant to be, the joy of shining with the light we were destined to shine, stops? How does the little light of mine, or yours, grow so dim or worse yet, get snugged out?
Maybe the unkindness of another puts it out. Or the harshness of life's circumstances. Or chronic heartache. Or the cruelty of someone else's words. Or disappointment. Or bitterness. Or, God forbid, all of the above. Maybe those are the things that snuff out the flame the Creator lit within us long before the foundations of the world. I don't know. Not for sure anyway. I do think however, that it breaks God's heart when His light in us dims or worse yet, goes out. After all, light was God's idea. So was I and so were you. The very first words of the Bible leave no question,
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Then God said, 'Let there be light'; and there was light. And God saw the light; that it was good;
and God divided the light from the darkness."
As God hovered, or lingered and contemplated, in the stillness of nothingness the idea came to Him to create light to contrast the darkness. And His self-judgement declared that it was good. The light was good. So much so that He actually divided it from the darkness. Enter the creation of man, and woman and ultimately, of you and of me. In each of us, God has put His light. A piece of Him that we are meant to reflect. Something of His image that we are destined to display. A light we were to let shine and not hide under a bush. Oh no. As children we believed that and we sang with gleeful confidence that we would indeed let our little light shine! And then we grew up.
And somewhere along the way our light, the light of God's glory, His goodness, dimmed and began to flicker. The darkness took over more and more of our heart until our light went out completely. I often wonder; each time that happens in an individual, does God look upon his created one and think, "this is not good. It's bad." I just have to wonder. Light has always been on God's heart. His Son came to earth to be the Light of the world and we were delivered out of darkness into His marvelous light! God is light and in Him there is no darkness.*
What would it take for your light to begin to shine once again? A simple decision that goes something like this ...."This little light of mine, I'm gonna' let it shine. This little light of mine, I'm gonna' let it shine. Let it shine. Let it shine. Let it shine?" When the flicker is seen within, beware of bushes and their tendency to hide the light of the God's image in you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVeB7ACVgO0&feature=related
* John 8:12; I Peter 2:9 and I John 1:5
