Shine with generosity

Most are familiar with the song “This Little Light of Mine.” The song’s theme is simple and repetitive, quickly introducing us to its tune and message of love and generosity. It’s a song, when properly understood, that creates good habits (light) in a person’s makeup where Christian Character Counts and destroys the dark practices of stinginess and squandering. Jesus said, “You are the light of the world…let your light shine before others.” (Matthew 5:14-16 (NIV))

One summer afternoon, my granddaughter, LillyPad, and I pulled into our garage. The door shut; it became utterly dark. A sudden blood-curdling scream came from Lilly; I quickly scampered to her and picked her up to comfort her in the chaos of pitch-blackness. As the threat of darkness subsided in the arms of her Papa, I identified a small light projecting from the garage door opener.

I instructed Lilly to look and keep her eyes on the little light. Gradually and slowly, we navigated through the darkness to the switch. There I said, “Push the light, Lilly.”

She did! The door opened, and the threat of darkness diminished; the light came in, and all was good again. It was there we celebrated lights victory by singing, you got it, “This Little Light of Mine.”

The Bible invites all people to switch on the light of life through Jesus to let their light shine! Why? Because it’s Jesus’s light that illuminates the little light in us. When all parts of us live in the brightness of God (attitudes, relationships, performance — good and bad, etc.) through Jesus in an open, safe, and accepting way, God’s light can lighten the darkness where people can grow in relationships to “walk in the light” (1 John 1:7).

Like Lilly trusting her Papa in a dark garage, you must trust God and someone who can direct and carry you to the light of Jesus in the world’s darkness. Walking in the darkness alone is horrifying, but walking towards the light with trusting people is delightful and the only way to integrate the more significant light of God into your reality. Whoever this may be in your life, your spiritual Papa, make sure they understand the little light in you and can get you safely to the Door of Jesus to the light of this world. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of Life (John 8:12)”.

At this moment, cradled in the arms of this devotion, I encourage you to “push the light of Life (Jesus)” to open God’s door allowing his generous light to come in where all is very good (Genesis 1:31). If you do, no matter how dark it gets you’ll always have a way to navigate through the darkness to induct and switch on the light to discover more of God. More, where you sing together “This Little Light of Mine,” where Christian Character Counts.

With loving arms,

Drake Hunter is the Senior Pastor at Elevating Life Church in Fort Morgan and the author of “Wonderfully Weird Living.”