This Little Light of Mine

Do you remember the kid's song from your junior church days?

This little light of mine,
I'm gonna let it shine.
This little light of mine,
I'm gonna let it shine.
Let it shine. Let it shine. Let it shine.

We sang with gusto as we held our fingers up and made it go in a circle, indicating a tiny candle that we would let shine all over the world.

What is the origin of this song? You'll notice that the song doesn't mention Jesus, God, or the Holy Spirit. But I am sure that they were intended, right?

The idea behind this little diddy probably came from Luke 11:33-36. This is what Jesus said there:

33 "No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. 34 Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. 35 Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. 36 If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light." (Luke 11:33-36, ESV)

I came to this text this morning in my Bible reading plan, and it stopped me. I'd never meditated on it. However, as I did this morning, I couldn't seem to make sense of it. It was as if I were blind to the light. That scared me.

I asked God to illumine my lack of understanding and read the passage again. Still nothing. More prayer for help, and still nothing came to me.

Jesus tells us about a lamp and what it is used for. What he says is common sense. Nobody lights a lamp to hide it. Lamps are made to light up dark places. We all know that.

He then speaks about how our eyes are light for our bodies. Good eyes equal illumination for our whole body. A blind person has darkness no matter how developed their other senses are. Blindness is darkness.

Jesus then says something puzzling in verse 35, "Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness."

What? Be careful? The light be darkness? I didn't get this part. Jesus is warning me not to let my light be darkness. How can light be dark?

I waited for more illumination but confess that I finally went to other sources. Piper gave me a good deal of light on this text. He mentioned that a candle gives light in dark places until the sun rises. Then the candle is useless.

In the context of Jesus' statement above, he scolds the crowds for asking for a sign. He had done numberless miracles by this time in his ministry, yet the people wanted something more sensational. They didn't see the Light. They were using the candle of their understanding in the presence of THE LIGHT of the world.

Their light was like darkness. They were blind to what the queen of Sheba would have seen immediately if she'd been there. The Ninevites were pagan people too, but they would have instantly known who Jesus was because he was a greater light than Jonah.

In the same way, the little lights of today's world can distract us from the True Light if we are not careful. All kinds of "dark lights" call for our attention. Some seem to be real, while others are definitely obviously not. However, when we take Jesus' warning to heart, we can ignore the little dark lights around us. They are worthless.

So, don't fill your life with dark light. Worldly lights can blind you to the Truth of Jesus Christ. Fill your spiritual vision with Jesus' light, and you will be blind to the world's darkness. And that type of blindness is a good thing.

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