I sat watching the bonfire with my family. As my children
were busily roasting marshmallows my mind began to wonder. A pop in the fire
sent embers flying into the night sky. As I watched them rise on the breeze
my inner voice spoke up.
“Do you get the point?” came the question in my mind.
“No, Lord,” my thoughts replied. “If you have a point to
make please use a sledge hammer as I am quite dense.”
Whack!
Darkness cannot exist where there is light for the light
overcomes the dark. In God we have perfect light. When we reside in God we
reside in a place where darkness cannot be. Darkness cannot overcome the light,
it retreats from it. Darkness can only exist where once there was light if
light fails to shine.
“Go therefore and make disciples
of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and
the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I
am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28: 19 – 20
Another pop; more embers sent skyward.
“Do you get the point?”
As Christians we are like the embers of a fire. We have been
sent forth to take the light into the darkness. Even the darkest night gives
way to the faintest ember. Every ember has the ability to start a new fire if
it finds its way to a favorable location, a location ready to burn. A single
ember, burning hot enough, has the ability of setting the world on fire.
No ember burns brighter than the fire that created it.
Although thousands of embers are sent skyward, few produce other fires. This
does not stop the fire from making embers. Nor does it stop the embers from
burning brightly in the darkness.
Likewise, we will not be able to bring every person we meet
to a saving knowledge of Jesus. That should not deter us from burning brightly
with the love of God. We are called to be the embers in the night. We are
called to leave the fire and bring light into the darkness. When we find that
we are no longer burning brightly we can return to the fire and be filled with
new life.
Go forth little ember. Burn defiantly in the night giving evidence
that the fire still blazes and the light has not left this world.
