Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16
There are many days when my light shines dimly—if it even shines at all. I find
myself entangled in the immediate challenges of this world, distracted by worry and doubt—racing from one activity to the next—and making mistakes along the way. I often wonder . . . how can my light shine? How can I do anything good for God through my messy, frenetic life?
But then I remember: God did not wait until our world was pristine and sinless before coming to us. Instead he chose to plop himself in the center of our human mess. I think about Mary and Joseph and how they must have felt unprepared for what God asked them to do. In what was to be one of the holiest of moments, they found themselves in a stable, on a dirt floor, the air permeated with the smell of livestock. I imagine they felt overwhelmed and afraid.
But we know the story. The Son of God was birthed in that dismal place—and it was not because Mary and Joseph had it all together. It was because they believed. They believed the words of the angel; they believed the words of the prophets who had gone before them; they believed the words of God.
To believe required courage—required faith, because it was an outrageous tale, really; but they believed His words, and Jesus was born. And a great light shone from that stable so brightly that it has mystified astronomers for thousands of years.
At times our hearts might resemble the grim stable, and we wonder how our light can shine. When you think about it, the claims of Christianity sound outlandish. But like Mary and Joseph, we are called to believe this outlandish story. And if are willing to trust His words, His promise will be birthed in our hearts, and His light will shine through us.
In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. John 1:4
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