Following On

This will be the last devotional on the topic of - the sermon pastors do not preach at a funeral.

One question we must ask is this, “What is God’s plan?  Why did he create humanity and why would he want us to be part of his heaven?  Here’s the answer – God wants us to be children of light, living in a land of light, governed by the Lord of light.  That’s essentially what Paul says in Ephesians 5:8, “…you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. [Therefore] live as children of light.”  Revelation 22:5 adds to that by saying that in Heaven… “There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign forever and ever.”

In 2014 an African musician by the name of Akon decided to spend some of his own money in helping the people of rural Nigeria have a reliable source of electricity.  He began with a poverty-stricken rural village of about 200 households.  Traditionally, during the long winter nights children would be forced to study by the light of candles or kerosene lamps.  Those candles were expensive and always too few.  These villagers lived in two room shacks or even traditional mud block huts.   Workers began installing the solar panels.  The village people laughed and pointed.  How ridiculous to expect something like that to provide the light they needed.

However, the lights came on just as Akon had promised.  Villagers remember their delight as they went from house to house flipping the switch and seeing light come forth from every domicile.  What a transformation.  The frightening and impenetrable dark night had been turned into daylight with the flip of a switch.

What happened is that those solar panels collected light from the sun during the day and then released that stored energy for use during the night.  The sunlight was collected so that same sunlight could be released as needed. 

That’s what God asks from us.  Take in his light, live out his word, and then release that light into the dark world around you.  Live as children of light, because children of light will be the only citizens in God’s light-filled kingdom. 

There is a path of darkness and there is a path of light.  Choose light.  God’s kingdom is made of light.