I was sitting in my easy chair looking at birthday pictures with my two-year-old grandson, Reid, who was sitting on my lap. The week before, his mother and father had taken him out of town to celebrate his birthday with his other grandparents and aunts and uncles. Unknown to the others, one of the young uncles had put the kind of candles on Reid’s cake that you can’t blow out - the flame keeps relighting. When it came time for Reid to blow out the candles, he blew on them and they went out, but then they came back on again. He blew again, and the same thing happened. Frustrated, he began to cry. His mother scolded her brother and changed to regular candles so that they would go out when Reid blew on them.
When Reid and I looked at the birthday pictures, we came to the picture of the pretty, decorated cake with two candles shining brightly and a little boy crying. As we looked at the sad picture, I said, “Couldn’t you blow out the candles, Reid?” “Nooo!” he wailed and began crying all over again. I comforted him and told him that sometimes people like to play tricks on someone and don’t realize they are going to hurt the person’s feelings. Then they are sorry afterwards.
When the Lord Jesus was here on earth, He said, “I am the light of the world: he that [follows] Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12). For more than two thousand years the enemy of our souls, Satan, has been trying to put out that light. But he can’t do it! The light of the gospel of Jesus Christ and His love and death for sinners are still shining in this dark world, and souls are being saved from their sins.
When Reid was still young, he admitted that he was a sinner and needed a Saviour. Then the Bible verse in 2 Corinthians 4:6 became true for him: “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
Those of us who have accepted Jesus Christ as our Saviour are to reflect that light: “For [you] were sometime darkness, but now are [you] light in the Lord: walk as children of light” (Ephesians 5:8). Jesus said, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).
When Reid graduated from college, he became friends with a girl who was not saved from her sins. Reid, letting his light shine, began to tell her of the Lord Jesus who loved her and who came down from His Father’s home in heaven to die on the cross for her.
One evening Reid went to visit her, and she met him at the door and told him, “Last night I accepted the Lord Jesus as my Saviour.” How happy they both were. He had let his light shine in giving her the gospel, and now she had the light of Jesus Christ in her soul. Later they were married and are happily living as lights for the Lord Jesus, telling family and friends that Jesus is the light of the world, longing to save people from the darkness of Satan’s power.
If you have accepted the Lord Jesus as your very own Saviour, are you letting your light shine out to your family and friends who are still in the darkness of their sins?
“I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”
John 8:12
ML-04/06/2003