When the power is out for lots of people over an extended period of time, it stands to reason that some funny stories will emerge. My favorite story of the recent outage came from a gentleman with whom I caught up while grabbing some coffee on Sunday morning at church. The man, who will remain unnamed, told me that he’d had an interesting dental experience. Without the benefit of adequate light, he’d loaded up his toothbrush, and found out upon beginning to brush that whatever was on his brush was not toothpaste. Hmm.
Sometimes it takes a power outage to remind us that it is very difficult to live without light. Light brightens our world and helps us to interpret our surroundings. Without light, humans would not even be able to survive. This makes it pretty significant that Jesus told His disciples that they were “the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14–16).
When we “let our light shine before men” (v. 16) by doing good deeds anchored in the truth of Scripture and in the power of the Holy Spirit, we illumine people around us to the reality of God’s goodness and mercy. To state it more generally, our Christian witness makes it more likely that those who don’t yet know Christ will interpret life and eternity properly. Sadly, many people around us are trying to brush their teeth with all kinds of stuff. As we shine the light of Jesus upon them, they start to see more clearly what is toothpaste and what is Preparation H.
And if that doesn’t underscore the value of being a good witness for Jesus, I don’t know what will.
—Beau Stanley
