Son-light

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.  And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." 2 Corinthians 3:18

In his book, It's Not About Me, my friend Max Lucado tells about how difficult it is for us to describe the function of the moon,  because truthfully  it doesn't do much. I know  it has connections with the tides of the ocean but I cannot explain how all that works or why. I know it shines brightly at night and can be seen sometimes during the day, but for the most part, it is sitting there doing nothing. 

For a moon I suppose it does a pretty good job, whatever that job is.  I know it circles the earth and the earth circles the sun, but it really isn't doing much on its own. I could add that I know people who don't do much but run around in circles, never accomplishing anything, but that describes me at times, too.

  

The moon has no abilities on its own. It just circles in space and the only thing noticeable it does is during the nighttime, when things are lined up right, it reflects light from the sun.  That makes it appear that the moon is shining, but in reality, the sun is still doing all the shining and its bouncing off the moon back toward us. 

I do confess the effects of the light which reflects off the moon are connected someway with romance, in that songs have been written and stories told about the effects of moonlight. Further effects of what we erroneously call moonlight, which is simply reflected sunlight, are sometimes it is bright enough that we can actually see at night. 

Max had his own descriptions and comparisons which indicated that that moon was apparently happy doing nothing, and never seemed to mind the actual praise  for moonlight belonged to the sun.  Then Max brought everything into a sharper focus for all of us when he asked the question, "What would happen if we accepted our place as Son reflectors?

To be a Son reflector, I see some changes that need to be made in me. For one, I see that instead of me accepting the praise and good words when successful things happen in the church, those praises belong to Jesus if I am being changed into his likeness and reflecting him. In the process of me being changed, if I am productive in bringing an increase in church attendance or in dollars collected, no pats on the back are necessary for me. I was only reflecting the Son-light. If I work harder and do more, it's still a reflection of Son-light. Like the moon, I can do nothing in and of myself. 

The real question here is not how much we can do, or how fast we can work, or how strong we can become. Daily examination should be in the area of how much I am allowing the Spirit to change me into the likeness of Jesus Christ. It's nice when people applaud our accomplishments and I appreciate all the nice words I receive, but my attitude should be one of losing my ego, and glorifying God that the Son-light is still making us look good. 

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