the floodlight of the world

The Word for today:
Genesis 8:20-9:29

mark this: Genesis 9:16
Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.

I once set out to find my wife's ring. I had never seen it, but I knew that I would find it. I remember going from jewelry store to jewelry store. I knew it was somewhere. I would know which ring it was when I found the gemstone that perfectly matched her eyes. I looked in a hundred stores, and then I looked in more. In a shop on a side street in Medina, New York, I found it. Those were romantic days.

But not nearly as romantic as these days are. I get crazier and crazier about her all the time. When I look back over the story of my life, over misspent days and wayward ways, over all that was lost and found, she will be what shines:

Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.  (1)

Shelley's my favorite color. But I don't ever want you to be that color. Because if you did, there would be something missing from the rainbow.

Jesus said some wildly wonderful things. Amongst all the wonder that dripped from his lips was this:
I am the Light of the world (2).  You've heard that one.

But there's more. He also said this:
You are the light of the world (3).

And then he said this:
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven  (4).

***

How can it be that Jesus is the Light of the world and we are the light of the world? The answer's in the rainbow.

A rainbow is comprised of the many colors of light. When light passes through a raindrop or the mist of a cloud, it displays a whole continuum of colors from red to violet and even beyond the colors that the eye can see!

This spectrum of colors, when combined, looks white to the eye.

Do you see how important it is that you shine forth your particular color, and I mine, and that Shelley shine forth hers?

***

Just the other day someone told me I should be a different color. The Spirit within me resisted her advice. Though I am not her favorite color, I occupy a little part of the spectrum. It was Jesus who placed me right there.

***

Jesus never said that any one of us is the light of the world. But in the aggregate, if you so shine and if I so shine -- if I'm my hue, and you are you -- then the Light of the world will flood the scene.

That's the flood promised by the rainbow.

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(1) from "The Song of Wandering Aengus," W. B. Yeats; (2) John 8:12; (3) Matthew 5:14; (4) Matthew 5:16