SHINE LIKE THE SUN
A few years ago I spent the week with a dear friend while her husband was out of town so I could help her go to and from radiation treatments for her recently discovered glioblastoma, a fast-growing brain tumor.
While there I did a lot thinking of how quickly life passes and how short the time I have left on this planet will seem. At that time I had a six-year-old grandson. It seemed as if he was born the day before. If every six-year span went that fast, YIKES! Bang, it’s over!
Although, over for me, “over” simply means the best is yet to come. I mean “THE BEST” in capital letters! I’m destined for Heaven. I was created for Heaven. If I could experience Heaven for a few seconds it would take more than a 20-mule team to drag me back to this life.
And don’t get me wrong. I’m loving this life God has given me. But I recognize a longing in my heart for something that is yet to be. I get regular glimpses into that “something” when I pull away from the busyness of this life and get alone with Him, my God and my Savior. Oh my! The joy, the peace, the longing for more of Him is indescribable!
This may sound crazy and time will tell how “off” I am about this, but while traveling home from Vermont recently, out of the blue a very strange phrase dropped into my brain. That particular, foreign thought was that I have “thirty years of brilliance” in front of me. That phrase stuck in my head for weeks; no, actually months. I thought it was ridiculous at first, downright arrogant. But I couldn’t shake those words. Ashamed of the egotistical, proud tone those words evoke, I started making it a matter of prayer. Then it dawned on me that it’s not at all about MY brilliance! It’s totally and completely about HIS brilliance, HIS light at work in and through me. Why should that surprise me? Why should that surprise any of His children who choose to live lives surrendered to Him?
After all, His Word has quite a lot to say about shining, which is what I think of when I talk about this “brilliance”.
“The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.” Proverbs 4:18,
“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
“Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” Jesus’ words, Matthew 13:43
“so that you may become blameless and pure, ‘children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.’ Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.” Philippians 2:15,16
I can wither away for the next thirty-plus years right along with my withering skin, or I can choose to surrender to the One who has made me to be His light, to shine brightly, to shine like the sun, to shine like the stars in the sky! WOW! Should we ignore the opportunity set before us? To choose to disobey our Lord’s words? Not me! Thirty years, give or take, here I come!!
