Light Of The World

Two nights ago, for the first time, I saw the northern lights. It was spectacular!

Tim took some pictures of them with Chris' camera. Chris wasn't home. He was tutoring a high school student in physics.

Here are some of the pictures:

The northern lights were so beautiful and amazing, they were featured on Fox News because they could also be seen all across northern United States. Many people reported that the display was the best they have seen in years.

As Christians, the Bible says we are to be a light in our dark world. How are we to let our light shine? By going out of our way, even sacrificing, to do good to others. In that way God's glory — a beautiful display of colourful, luminous lights across a dark, starlit sky — will be revealed, noticed, and amazed by others, drawing them to their Creator and Heavenly Father.

"You are the light of the world.

A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.

Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.

Instead they put it on its stand,

and it gives light to everyone in the house.

In the same way, let your light shine before others,

that they may see your good deeds

and glorify your Father in Heaven."

Matthew 5:14-16

When you are waiting in line at a grocery store and the person in front does not have enough money to pay for all his/her groceries, pay it for him/her. If you have just bought a new house in a new neighbourhood and have to put up a fence, don't charge your neighbours to pay for their half of it. If your neighbours tell you they are going away, offer to water their flowers and mow their lawn at no charge. If a single parent needs a babysitter, offer to babysit for free. If you are baking something delicious, bake extra and share it with your neighbours. If a neighbour needs a tool, and he doesn't have one, let him borrow yours, and don't fret that he will break it. If someone in your neighbourhood is sick, recuperating from surgery, grieving, or just had a baby, then bring them your most delicious meal. If an elderly person needs his/her driveway shovelled in winter, shovel yours and his/her driveway too. In these ways your light will shine in your neighbourhood like a glorious display of the northern lights across the black backdrop of the night sky.

We see Christians often doing these kinds of things for people in their Church family and this is wonderful! But let's now do these things for our neighbours who do not know Christ and really let our light shine!