Mirrors

"Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (John 8:12).

I want to share a wonderful thought with you today that I hope strengthens you and encourages you. Jesus Christ is the light of the world and we are His mirrors. We have been called to reflect the light of Jesus in the world.

Paul calls us children of light, telling us that we are now light in the Lord (Eph 5:8). As children of the light, we have a great task to complete, and that is to spread the light to all the world (Mark 16:15). We cannot do this by ourselves as we have no light of our own. Instead we must strive to live lives that reflect Jesus well to the world. As the song says, "Can the world see Jesus in me?"

One facet of reflecting Christ is orientation; you must be pointed the right way. In order to reflect Christ, you just can't be focused on anything else. We are not retroreflectors (prisms that reflects light regardless of angle) and in order to function properly, we must be pointed directly at Him. If you have your focus on the world, or yourself, how can you expect to reflect anything else. In order to properly reflect Christ, we must live a Christ-centered life.

Another facet of reflecting Christ is occultation. Relax, I'm not getting all pagan on you or anything, this word just means that something is hidden behind something else. My point is that even if your orientation is correct, sometimes you can let things get in between Jesus and yourself. This will block some if not all of the light you are trying to reflect like an eclipse, it just depends on how close you let the obstacle get to you. If there is anything between you and Christ, remove it or move yourself until that thing is no longer in the way.

One final facet of reflecting Christ is albedo. Albedo is a term that describes how reflective a surface is. When it comes to us reflecting Christ, we need to look at how clean our mirror is. In other words are we keeping our lives free from the stain of sin that will detract from how well we reflect the light of Jesus? We should endeavor to maintain a high polish on our lives as our actions can cast a pallor on us, and what we reflect can become diminished. The proper Christian mentality should always be to remove anything from our lives that hampers our light shining.

A little more on how well we reflect Jesus in our life, and that deals with purity. When precious metals like silver and gold are purified, the way that the refiners know that the molten metal has reached the desired level of purity, the surface begins to reflect like a mirror. Only in the heat of trials do we become refined, and still during those trials, He always has His eye on us (Job 23:10).

I've used astronomy terms in this post because I see a correlation to the heavenly bodies that orbit our sun and followers of Christ. Just as everything in the solar system reflects the light of the sun and shines against a curtain of darkness, so should the children of God reflect the light of the Son and shine within a world of darkness. Christianity isn't just about us and any personal growth that we've achieved through Him. We must emerge as witnesses to the wondrous glory of God. If the heavens declare the glory of God, how should our calling be anything less (Psa 19:1)?

So I have a message today for the Christians, those who choose to associate themselves and give themselves for Christ and His message. Our mentality must be the same as that song we learned to sing in Sunday School. Our attitude should always remain "This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine". Friends, shine on.