When I was younger, my friends and I played a good deal of Capture the Flag. The games took place mostly at night and didn’t matter whose house we were at. We’d split into teams, set the ground rules, hand over the flags and take off at a dead run. We covered a lot of ground, but most of the places we played had street lights. We ran through entire neighborhoods (sorry about your peonies, Mrs. H!). A little light was all we needed to keep us going and safe.
A Light in the Dark
Matthew 5:14-16 (ESV)
14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that[a] they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
The light didn’t have to do anything for us to benefit from it. It just had to shine. That same streetlight during the day would be lost in the sunshine, but at night it was enough to keep us from tumbling over sidewalks and driveways we wouldn’t have been able to see otherwise.
This is similar to what Jesus was telling his disciples in at the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, when He told them they were “the light of the world.” He wasn’t asking them to go and point out all the reasons how someone (or society!) were failing God. They simply had to be the light so that “they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
It only takes a little light to light the darkness. Be the Light.