Lightning bugs have always fascinated me. They flit from place to place intermittently flashing their lighted abdomens into dusky darkness.
When humid, warm summer breezes blow in, lightning bugs appear as twinkling Christmas lights in the fields and forest edges.
As girls growing up in south Texas, my sisters and I loved pursuing and capturing lightning bugs. We put them in mason jars with holes poked in the lids to make our own lightning bug lanterns.
You'd be surprised how much light 20 of the little guys generate!
As I anticipate their annual appearance, something occurred to me for the first time.
I think Jesus would have liked lightning bugs.
They weren't native to where He lived, but Jesus knew about shining light.
He told us, "While I am in the world, I am the light of the world." (John 9:5)
And although He shone while He was here, He couldn't stay. So He passed the torch to those who would receive by faith the call to shine His glory.
The ultimate lantern.
"For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." (2 Cor. 4:6-7)
God puts the light of His glory in us. His jars.
But our jars are light-suffocating, thick clay. So we endure brokenness. And through the cracks and holes of suffering, His brilliance pours forth like a beacon.
He carefully places His light in us and sends us into a world that desperately needs the radiance of His redemption, grace, and forgiveness.
He placed you to glow where you are. And me to glow in another. Sometimes, He gathers us to shine His glory more brilliantly together.
But we're called to go forth into darkness carrying His lantern of hope.
Yes, I think Jesus would have liked lightning bugs.
Just think of the parable He would have spun.
Do you have lightning bugs where you live?
How are you shining His light where He's placed you?
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How are you shining His light where He's placed you?
