Be the Light

At our kitchen table, I was watching a candle in the process of burning out. Its wick burned too low and would soon be below the level of the wax. Then the flame would die. At the same time I remembered two candles among our stored Christmas decorations. They were still brand new, though they were purchased several years before. Our mum always enjoyed them as a focal point of her living room decorations at Christmas. But she never allowed anyone to light them. They never fulfilled their chief purpose.

We Christians can be like that. We can tell all about the Bible. We can articulate our belief on this or that aspect of faith. But when we don’t get around to putting our faith into action, we are like a candle left unlit. Our faith is shallow. Like a lamp lit and put under a bushel, we fail to share Christ’s light and hope and to fulfil Christ’s command for us to tend to the least and the lost (see Matthew 25:40).

In every season of life we can find a new commitment to be Jesus’ hands and feet, serving those in need whenever and wherever God may bring them across our path.

Prayer: O God, help us to find a new vision of the reason you sent Jesus into our world. Help us to bring him into our world again in faith, in word and in action. Amen