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Last week, my article was inspired by my oldest. This week’s is inspired not by one, but two of my kids.
My daughter has this Advent reflection/prayer book (no idea where she got it from, she just started bringing it out at Advent). A few nights ago, the reflection was on God being the Father of Lights, Jesus being the Light of the World and how there are people who are afraid of the dark but not many who are afraid of the light.
As we let the kids discuss this, one of the kids said that light makes shadows, and I kind of hesitated, but then affirmed that it’s true, that light can create shadows. And then one of the other kids said something that dropped my mouth open:
Yeah, when we get in the way.
Whoa.
Then I started flipping out as I realized once again how insightful children can be (because no one, especially not Jesus, has ever said anything about children being amazing).
I know I’ve heard many times about us blocking the light (putting it under a basket instead of on a lampstand), but I can’t remember hearing that if we don’t let Christ’s light shine through us, we then cast a shadow on all those people that are on the other side of us. But that’s what we do.
As we approach Christmas, we keep hearing about Jesus being the Light of the World. That He is the source of our light, the source of our love. You’ve probably (hopefully) felt His Love for you at some point – or at least you know He loves you. But are you supposed to just bottle that love up and keep it for ourselves? Are you supposed to close yourself off to others? Of course not, but we still do it.
I know there are far too many people in my life that I have kept in my shadow because of my fear. I sometimes fear that if I bring certain things to light, I might not be able to handle it. I have assumptions about people. And I almost prefer to leave it as an assumption – like a shadow, something you can’t see all that well into – than to know them, because then I don’t actually have to have challenging conversations or risk relationships.
What areas of your life are you casting shadows? Are there people you aren’t forgiving? Aren’t being open with?
God desires for us to not just receive His Love, His Light, but to let it shine through us and upon others.
So even though it doesn’t sound as cool, be a Lightshiner, not a Shadowcaster.
