CHILDREN AS LIGHT-BEARERS

The first command of creation was "Let there be light". The majesty of this is readily felt by the simplest of us who have eyes to see with, yet there must even now be many mysteries of light too deep for the men of science. This is of course natural light but when the Lord Jesus came into the world the light that was in Him was moral light shining for the consciences and hearts of all, but lighting up the souls and spirits of all who received it - received Himself. That light could not be "apprehended" or taken captive by the moral darkness of persons who obscured it, so we are assured of its constant shining.

Our great source of light is the sun, a type of the Lord Jesus in heaven, the light and life of believers. We cannot look upon the sun in its might, neither can we comprehend the full glory of the Lord. Yet as the white light of the sun is seen in the beautiful colours of the rainbow so we can behold the various glories of Christ, each one distinct yet all merging perfectly together. We are taught that there are in the bow the seven well-known colours, but that there are also two more which cannot be seen with the unaided eye although we get the benefit of their rays. There is therefore always that which is beyond us.

Time has from very early days been measured by the movement of the shadow of the light of the sun on sundials of various kinds. A story of God's great mercy is woven around that of king Ahaz. His son king Hezekiah being very ill prayed for his life to be spared and prolonged. As a sign of God's readiness according to His own will to grant this request the shadow would either go forward or go backward ten degrees on the dial of Ahaz. The suffering king was quick to realise that it is an easy thing to lose time but that if the shadow should go back it would be like gaining time! Have we learned the lesson from this incident recorded more than once in the Bible? Ten degrees is forty minutes - the time of a gospel preaching! God in long-suffering mercy is holding back the shadow from reaching the judgment-point on His dial of time whilst our Sun shines in His heavenly glory.

At the opposite end of creation's scale to the sun is the tiny beetle-like creature we know as the glowworm. It is the female that shows a distinct bluish green light. I owe it to the shining of large numbers of these creatures that I was saved from cycling straight into a bank of earth one dark war-time night. Morally the saints at Philippi were glow-worms, appearing as lights in this dark world, radiating the glad tidings and saving persons from running into destruction. Are you put to shame by this little creature?

J.C.Evershed