Out of The Darkness

I had never really lived out in the country - not REALLY out in the country - not like for real.... suburbs don't count, and the city lights even in the burbs have a way of hiding things....

I will never forget the first time I was out on a summer night in the country - so dark! Wow, those back country roads by me are something else! And the craziest thing is when you turn the lights off on the car you are driving as you are going down the road (yeah I know, bad idea... my disclaimer..."professional driver on closed course, do not attempt..." maybe? haha!)

But, when you turn the lights off on the car you are driving, the craziest thing happens - lightning bugs!

Everywhere, all over the place, lightning bugs, more than I had EVER seen in one spot, glowing, diving, floating, their little lights just beautiful against the blackest of night in the middle of no where. What an impressive show. It was to me then, and I was reminded of it again last night as I was going home, dead tired and just wanting to crawl into my cozy bed.

It is funny to me how the Lord just speaks in the simplest of terms. He knows my frame well, knows the things that yank at my heartstrings, knows my ways inside and out - and He knows how to get my attention, and how to reach my inner being where He reveals Himself to me.

So I am looking out over this 'up and coming' corn field, and it is just dusk, still a bit light out, and there are lightning bugs zipping around with an energy that I sorely lacked... and I was reminded of that blackest of night when I first realized how beautiful country life could be.

"That is so like us", I thought, in my hazy sleepiness... "That is so like us, when the Lord sends us out into the dark places of the world - we are just those little lights that shine in the blackest of places and light up our little corner of the world with the love and hope of our Jesus!"
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I have a problem with people who believe that we are to be soooooo segregated from the 'world'. Of course I realize that we are not be partakers in the things of the world - that was never a question - but we are to be in it, we are to be in a place where our light shines into DARKNESS.

If there is no darkness, there is no need for light... If the world didn't need the light of God, the love and hope and change and redemption and tenderness that God offers, we would never be called to Be Like Jesus in this way.

It is something to think about... am I too afraid of being contaminated by the dark, that the light of the Lord will never extend into the darkness? Is there use for light if there is no place to shine it?

The whole purpose of God making us lights in this world, is so that we can project it into the places that need it!! Right? RIGHT. :-)