Third Monday blessing: reflection

Season of Light

The number of ways and the number of times light can be reflected is limitless – from a tiny, glittered ornament hung by tiny hands on the lowest branch, to a magnificent festival of lights along the canals in Venice, to an old and tarnished silver Christmas bulb reflector, to countless windows lining Michigan Avenue.

This reflected light appears the brightest during the darkest times of the day. At night, as light bounces off the snow and icy puddles, the contrast helps us more fully appreciate the magic of light tenaciously shining through the dark.

But while we celebrate the Light, we all know deep down that what is most hurtful, difficult, and divisive is exactly what brought Jesus to earth in the first place. At this precious time of year, when our hearts seem more tender and the spirit of love and peace seems more visible, I am reminded that we, too, are reflectors of Light.

We are the ones who must see the world – the whole world and everyone in it – through the eyes of the One who loved us most. And we must be the ones who reflect His love in every way, every day.

When social and cultural controversies crowd out the good and cloud our conversations, when we believe we have good – even holy – reason to blame and hate, when it seems that “they” are winning, when what I believe to be true is what you believe to be foolish, when the world does what it always does, well, that’s when it gets tricky. And it’s not easy.

Speaking not as a Bible scholar but as a woman with plenty of experience doing it the wrong way, I am quite sure that my attempts to bully someone into agreeing with me has never, EVER worked. Turning a cold shoulder to one who walks through life on a different path does little to convince them that God loves them. And confidently (a.k.a. smugly) displaying how much God must love me by how I am blessed has about the same effect – especially when it’s clear that my “blessings,” security, and comforts are somehow exclusive to me and mine … and I have the right to protect them at anyone else’s expense.

For those of you with whom I share faith, I understand “spreading the good news,” “making disciples,” and “reaching the lost.” I really do. Despite my actions or lack thereof to the contrary, I believe that Jesus commanded us to introduce Him to everyone and anyone and tell His story of redemption.

But if the way we follow His words sound like “my way or the highway,” we may be reading the tenets of our faith through a pinhole. If we live our lives not by reflecting the love of Jesus to all the world in every way we can but by outshouting them with all the love and care of a laser-beam to the eyes, I think we’re believing more in our own understanding than in the clearest words spoken – Love one another.

See, we can’t skirt that one. It’s pretty simple and not subject to a lot of fancy interpretation.

Yes, it’s true, how we display love is subjective. But if we do not care about every life, if we shame people for making decisions we consider unconscionable, if we use religious texts to justify cruelty, and if we make it more about how spiritually correct we are than how much we love, let’s agree: we just aren’t following the ways of Jesus.

My lovelies, we can all do better. Can’t we?

Season of love. Season of light.

Jesus, perfect Love. Jesus, the Light of the World. May we always reflect Him – in unlimited ways, unlimited times.

Until next time, I pray for you love and light and

Photo by Benjamin Suter on Unsplash