An Advent Reflection?

Although I have started a new Blog for my Advent Reflections I have been thinking about reflections from a different point of view today so I decided to put this entry in my regular Blog rather than my Advent Blog.

It all began when I was about to head home from the parish this afternoon. It was 4:10pm and the sun was just setting in the West, and the moon was rising up in the Eastern sky. The moon is almost full just now, and the sky was mostly clear, so I decided to spend a few minutes trying to take a photo showing the various different shades on the lunar surface.

I was quite pleased with the end result above, as you might agree. I think the focus was not quite right, although there was some high cloud that may also have made the image somewhat blurred. Nonetheless it's the best photograph I have ever taken of the moon.

As I was reviewing the various images of the moon when I got home it set me thinking about the light of the moon. It doesn't shine with its own light. All the light of the moon is reflected sunlight.

Jesus once used an analogy of a lamp shining on a lampstand, telling his followers to "let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven." (Matt 5:15, NRSV)

It made me ponder where this light comes from that Jesus was talking about. Is our light to be a reflection of some light shining upon us - like the moon reflects the sunlight? Or is this light that shines from us to come from within - like sunlight itself?

Certainly the light that Jesus was talking about is the light that comes from God. In the first book and chapter of the Bible, Genesis 1:3, the first thing that God spoke into existence was light. And in the last book and chapter of the Bible, Revelation 22:5, John says, "there will be no more night; they need no lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light".

At the beginning of John's Gospel, chapter 1, verses 4 & 5, John says about Jesus that "In him was life and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it." NIV/NRSV.
And at verse 9, John says that "The true light that gives light to all mankind was coming into the world." that first Christmas time.

So getting back to our question - Does the light reflect from us or shine from within in us?

I would argue that it shines from within us.

The light comes from God, and God himself is somehow inside each person who tries to follow Jesus. Jesus said that after he returned to God the Father they would send his Holy Spirit to each of Jesus' followers, and that the Spirit "lives with you and is in you." (John 14:17)

So let the light of God that is shining within you shine out into the world so that the darkness would be turned to light and that all mankind would one day give glory to God our Father in heaven.