Devotion 352 - light

I stick the knife into the fleshy side of the pumpkin.  This is the finale.

We carve a little hole in the side, avoiding all triangular shapes that might speak of jack-o-lantern evil.

Mamas and teachers, we all face the same dilemma.  How do we refocus evil to good?  In a few short months, how will we take little eyes from under the tree to the tree itself?

How do we scoop the goop out of pumpkins and try and get 5-year old kids to understand sin, when we struggle with it ourselves.

We are left with an empty gourd and we hasten to fill it with a candle and light.

A 5-year old has most likely heard the word naughty a few times; they have most likely come to understand bad and good.  Yet how does sin fit in there, in the hollow of a pumpkin.  We dig and we clean but the emptiness seems no more glorious.

So I grab the knife and dive into the side, wondering what it is these children are gleaning.  Sin, yes we have dumped that out, but now we must make room for the light to shine.  What is it about the skin of the pumpkin and the walls of my heart that I must cut away?  How is it the teacher always ends up being taught?

I cut a little shape.  I hope my candle is enough in the bright classroom for the children to see.  I pray the Holy Spirit speaks through me.

We light the candle and it shines and I wonder. Somehow that small hole cut out of the side feels like a piece of something I have been struggling with.

You see when one empties, we chase to fill.

When I am hungry, I rush to cook, prepare and consume.  When I thirst, I chase for drink.  When I feel alone, it is companionship.  But there are the bigger, uglier ones.  I have run in search of approval, I have hoped for acknowledgement.  I have sought comfort when there has been pain. I run because I have trouble waiting.

In this season of Him showing me what needs to change, I find myself helping Him along.  I seem to know how to run;  but it is running after Him with which I struggle.

Interesting that He says He is the light of the world.  He could have so easily said He is the law, the magistrate and executioner over our activity.  He could have said He is the Ruler, the sovereign dictator over our very thoughts.  But instead, He said LIGHT.

He shows, He guides, He comforts, and He leads.  He plants in us a desire and gives us the creativity to fulfill and flourish.  But the light has no borders, it also reveals the desires that are not of Him, the ones that must be dug out and sacrificed for something greater, something more blessed. 

So we begin.  We begin the surgical removal of the why of what we do, what we say, and the entitlement we feel to happiness, to comfort and to ease.

Paul challenges us to “earnestly desire the best gifts” of God.   (1Cor 12:31)
 

Oh Beloved how I want those.  It is my desire to want those gifts over all else with which I am challenged.   The light, it is not the “stuff” I am use to yet it is freeing.  It leads, it warms and it promises a freedom not to crowd out who we are but to allow us to take that and make it something for His glory. 

What higher calling could we ask that our journey does not occlude the light but magnifies it?

It becomes truth to me that light is found in the smallest of spaces.  When emptied, I have more empathy for the grieving friend.  I have more sympathy for the struggling child.  I have more love for the spouse who stands with me. 

It is extraordinary.  Emptied to be filled.  The death of desire, to truly live for Him. 

Good trumping evil.  Light evaporating darkness.  Truth conquering lies.

Love from death.  Whole from Holy.

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.  Psalm 37:4