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When I started driving as a teenager there were signs that told you to turn your “lights on when raining.” Although we have not had much rain around here, sometimes it can rain and when it does it pours down! Other cars need to know there is someone else on the road.

In a recent trip the lights shone and radiated so that you knew something was there. You may not have known if it was a car, pick up truck or even a semi-truck, but you knew something was ahead. The lights made it possible for us to see one another. I was glad they had the signs up.

Light has always played an important part in the Bible. Psalm 27:1 informs us “the Lord is my light” ... from Proverbs 29: 13 we learn the Lord gives light. Isaiah said we are to “walk in the light,” 2:5. And Jesus said, “you are the light of the world, a city that is set on a hip cannot be hidden.” Matthew 5:14.

I wonder today if we turn our lights on when ... we are at church services with other believers and worshipers? ... do we turn them on when we are at school? ... do we turn them on when we are at work? ... do we turn them on when someone tells a dirty joke? ... do we turn them on when we are with our families? ... do we turn them on when we are with our friends?

Actually, we should never turn our lights off! If we are accustomed to living in the light only at certain times then something is wrong. As Jesus would continue in Matthew 5:16, “Let your light so. shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven.” Jesus didn’t say, “turn them on when” but rather “let them shine.” You never know who may be watching you, so, if you only “shine” at certain times then the ones who need to see it most may not get to.

From this day forward lets make all of our lights shine so brightly before God that everyone will need shades to reflect the glare!