In the house I grew up, there were large skinny windows on either side of the front door. These windows allowed sunlight to shoot into the house like laser beams. One of these laser beams landed directly in the middle of the staircase that was located in front of the door. I used to sit on a wooden step and allow the heat and light of the sunbeam to penetrate me.
I waved my hands through the sunbeam and exposed different parts of my skin – face, arms, legs, neck – to its light. I would stretch up on my toes and reach my hands up to the ceiling so I could drown my entire body in its warmth. Needless to say, I could sit and play with my sunbeam for quite a while.
However, one particularly bright afternoon, I noticed something. I could see little things floating around in my sunbeam. It looked like a tiny ocean of living creatures dancing and swimming in the light. I couldn’t believe it. I looked all around the sunbeam for more floaty-things, but couldn’t see any. They only existed in the sunbeam’s light.
I sat staring at the beam trying to understand why I had never been told about tiny little life forms living in the rays of the sun when I realized that the life-forms were actually everywhere – the sunbeam had just illuminated them. My face scrunched up with disgust as I took another breath — I was breathing in little floaty-things!
After a few breaths, I decided that I wasn’t going to die and that the little life forms wouldn’t hurt me. Although I didn’t like seeing the floaty-things, I continued to visit my sunbeam because it was too special for me to let go. This sunbeam reminds me a lot of my relationship with God. God fills my life with warmth and light, but He also causes the ugly floaty-things in my life to be very transparent.
God is all-good, so everything not-so-good is very noticeable. I sometimes get tired of constantly having to spring-clean my character, but it’s worth it if I am able to sit with my savior, enjoy His presence and bask in His warmth.
Memory Verse:
“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.”
– 1 John 1:7 (NIV)
Prayer Prompt:
“Father, please illuminate my sin so that I may be more like Christ. I know that loving You is not always easy, but my heart’s desire is to please You, Lord. Show me now what sins that I have been ignoring and help me lay them down at Your feet, starting with…”
Contributing Writer:
Alisa Hope Wagner
Faith Imagined
Leave a Reply