Light changes EVERYTHING. While looking through the many varieties of pumpkins and squash at Burt’s Pumpkin Farm last week, I laughed at people’s amazement over these bumpy, oddly shaped ground-fruit. There were people combing the rows of front-porch pumpkins; some holding up little ones trying to get just the right light for TikTok posts about their adventure to this “farm”. It was hilarious.
But then I stopped, when I saw the light hit a bin of tiger-striped minis. It was the light that took away the eye-rolling going on in my mind, as I saw the beauty of that moment. The light shone and showed me something more. I was thankful for that moment. I even snapped a quick photo to try and freeze the scene.
I actually grew up farming pumpkins as a kid and teen. My grandfather had a huge bottom-land along the Chestatee River, with what seemed to be endless long rows that had to be plowed and hoed. Farming them was hard, but the reward was awesome. We grew two main varieties, Big Macs and Prize Winners. They were HUGE! People would come from miles around to look for the perfect pumpkin to go on their front stoop, or for the largest one that would make a coveted jack-o-lantern in the neighborhood.
But in the evening, when the sun would hit the tops of the trees around that bottom-land, there was just enough light to bring out a special orange glow that could only be seen through an autumn sun. The deep orange offset by the brown mountain soil and a rich green of vines and leaves. It’s burned into my mind.
“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 (ESV)
The apostle Paul tells us in the Scriptures that God, who spoke light into existence out of the darkness, has caused light to break forth in our inner core so that we can know His glory in and through Jesus Christ. It is to Jesus that we look for all things from God. Jesus is our sufficiency in the face of every supposed want, need, passion, or desire. If we make Him our all, we can have all that God desires for us, according to His infinite wisdom (instead of our own fallen wisdom).
He causes light to shine in a revelatory way, with that revelation being Jesus—who is the glory of God on full display. If we want to know God, see God, experience God in any way, it is Jesus that reveals Him. In the Son, and only the Son, can we and do we properly see the Father. Praise God for Jesus! May that light shine BRIGHTLY so that we see God CLEARLY!
—Pastor Whit