Motivation Monday - Be a light in the world

The massive theme park boasted a sea of teens and grandparents, babes in strollers, children playing, and toddlers on the shoulders of young adults. I stopped. Drinking it in, beholding the beautiful bounty of colour and culture represented by the crowd. I was struck by delighted awe. God knows and loves every single person here. Every one here is fully known, and deeply loved. And my heart cried out, can they know how loved they are? And I wished I could wrap my arms around the whole of them.

Thomas Merton shared a similar experience while walking along a city street where he declared “that there would be no way of telling people that they walk around shining like the sun”, and he felt a deep sense of connection to each person he saw. Jesus, in describing the Kingdom of God in Matthew 5 & 13, tells us more: For those who are born again into the Kindgom of God, Jesus says that you are the light of the world, and that we the righteous will shine like the sun. He says the righteous are like ever burning stars, and he invites you to not hide, but to let your light shine before others.

And the wonderful thing? You are not righteous because of your work or your goodness, and you are not “disqualified” by your brokenness. You are righteous because of the Word of God made flesh. Because through death Jesus inhabited the fullness of humanity, and through his resurrection he restored the union between God and humankind.

To you who receive the Gift of God, the light of Christ shines through you.

Don’t you know? My friend, you walk around, shining like the sun.

Elena T. Franklin, M.Div.