Thoughtful Thursday--Sunlight and Dust

I was at work the other night, when the Lord reminded me of an important Truth through a very simple illustration. Sunlight and dust.

We had served the dinner meal, eaten our own meal, and we had started to clean and reset the dining room. Three of the walls in the dining room are completely glass and in the summer we let down a huge shade so the sun doesn't blind our guests as they eat. Well, the sun was still streaming through the windows, but someone had decided to let the shade up. Where I was in the dining room, the light was blinding me, and showing me more dust than I wanted to know was there. You see, as long as I didn't know it was there, I didn't have to clean it. So, I asked someone to put the shade back down and I was able to continue without doing the extra cleaning. I still knew it was there, but because I didn't see it I felt like I didn't have to deal with it.

The Truth God reminded me of was the spiritual application of this experience. The dust is Sin and the sunlight is the Truth or Knowledge or Word or even Son of God.

There are countless references to light in Scripture; so very many of them referring to the Son of God:

the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light

and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death,

on them a light has dawned.”

Matthew 4:16 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

John 1:1-13

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

John 3:16-21

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

John 8:12

I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.

John 12:46

For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 4:6 

I am no expositor, no great teacher, and I don't even claim to be a very good writer. I wish I could do this subject justice. But I pray that through sharing these scriptures, God will touch you with this message like He did me.

Everyone who is born, whoever you are born to, is born a sinner. As sweet as babies are, they are corrupt; they just don't yet have the ability to carry our their sinful desires. We are born in darkness; with hearts full of dust.

On the glorious day that the Lord does His work of salvation in a persons life, He shines His Light in that heart. The Light brings clarity, warmth, comfort...but it also reveals the dust, the sin. As it is revealed, God gives the power to sweep away what is seen. And then, through the Light of His Word, shines into the deeper recesses to reveal even more. This is the work of Sanctification.

This is why it is so important that believers be reading God's Word on a regular basis: so His Light can shine in our hearts and reveal to us the dust and dirt in our lives that is interfering with our reflecting His Light to the world.

I want to finish by reiterating the verses that I think are key for this post:


And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
John 3:19-21

May the Light of God shine in your hearts today!