THE LESSON OF THE FIREFLIES

READ: 2 Corinthians 1:3-7

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden…Let your light shine before man in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16 (NASB)

We were seated on our deck gazing out into the darkness of the night. Quite suddenly little specks of light appeared. First just a few and then many more gathered. The multitude of the fireflies almost illuminated the area around our oak tree. The intensity of light ebbed and flowed. The number of lights varied, sometimes in clusters and in other times as isolated glowing specks.

Watching the changing patterns of the lights, I pondered how much they reflected the work of the church in our community, isolated specks reflecting individual efforts and radiant patches representing efforts of the entire congregation. The intensity of the light varying with the number of members involved. We know that each believer has the light of God within, dim though it may be at times. But as we come together, our lights join with others and glow brighter. After all an entire city is not lit by just one large light but by a multitude of small individual lights. We, as a church, like the fireflies can let our lights so shine that the darkness of this world is decreased and in doing so bring glory unto our Lord.