Reflecting Jesus
by Jilly Lyon-Taylor
In England last month we saw the moon appearing larger and brighter than usual. This is because its axis was closer to Earth than normal. It was so bright one night, that I woke up thinking it was morning! As I marvelled at the beauty of the moon casting shadows in our garden, I started to think about how amazing it is that the moon can shine so brightly when it has no light of its own. All it does is reflect the light from the sun.
In the same way, we as Christians have no light of our own. All we can do is allow Jesus, who is the Light of the World (John 8:12), to shine His light into our lives so that we can reflect something of Him to the people around us. The light does not come from us but from Him. 2 Corinthians 4:18 says: ‘We, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit’. The more we allow the transformation into His likeness to take place in our lives, the more we will reflect His glory.
However, it is only when the moon is full, or nearing fullness, that its light is at its brightest. In the moon’s other phases the earth comes between it and the sun in varying measure, blocking much of the sun’s light and causing it to appear as a sliver. In the same way, if we allow anything to come between us and Jesus, it will block the fullness of His light coming into our lives and prevent the brightness being reflected to others. That blockage can be the world and a focus on its pleasures; it can be sin and its effect; it can be our carnal nature, or anything else that takes our eyes off Jesus and stops us being full of His Spirit.
I sometimes wonder if God created the moon to orbit the earth in order to teach us some of these lessons!
Prayer: Lord, please show me anything that is coming between You and me today, which may be blocking me from the fullness of Your working in my life. Please help me to deal with these things so that I can more fully reflect Your glory to the people around me, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Jilly Lyon-Taylor is part of the Leadership Team at Ellel Pierrepont. She worked in publishing and then with children in Hong Kong before concentrating on being a full-time mother and serving in the local church. Her desire to see people healed led her to the Luke Nine Eleven Training Scheme(NETS) at Pierrepont, and now she teaches and ministers there.
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