Bicycles, the Moon, Jesus, and George Bailey
Bicycles
Earlier this year, during the 2020 quarantine bicycle craze where you couldn’t find a bike in stores!, we got my daughter a new bike for her birthday! We had to order it online and there was some assembly required.
In so many ways it was just like every bike I had as a kid growing up. It had handlebars, two tires, gears, brakes, and maybe most importantly… it had reflectors.
The reflectors on a bicycle may be the least expensive part of a bicycle. They’re small. They’re typically attached with only one small screw. They don’t have any other function except to reflect light but that function, that purpose, is INCREDIBLY important when you’re riding your bike early in the morning or late in evening and the only thing protecting your daughter from a collision with a car is that tiny little reflector that catches the light from the headlight of an oncoming vehicle that allows the driver to see that, O, there’s someone on a bike on the road and I should probably go around them!
Reflectors don’t produce light. They don’t generate light. They aren’t the source of any light. All they can do is reflect light generated by another source.
Kind of like the moon.
The Moon
I love the moon. My son is studying the moon phases in school right now and he called me up to his room this past week to see a project he was working on. He had his lamp on the floor which was the sun. Then he had a styrofoam ball on a pencil that he could move around the lamp, the sun, to see the phases of the moon. It was awesome. But you don’t have to remember all the phases of the moon to understand that the moon doesn’t generate any light. It’s not the source of any light. It can’t produce light. All the moon can do is reflect the light.
The Problem
Somewhere along the way, for those of us who decided to follow Jesus, we believed that we were supposed to be like those reflectors on a bicycle. We believed that we were supposed to be the moon.
But here’s the problem with that… and I’m about to make a bold claim and you can fact check me. If I’m wrong, let me know & I’ll take it back. But as far as I can tell Jesus, never once, called us to be reflectors.
Jesus, never once, called us to reflect His light. Jesus, never once, called us to be like the moon.
We made all that up. With good intentions for sure. People have said that. But Jesus never said that.
What Jesus says is actually way more compelling, way more powerful, and if we believe what Jesus says it has the power to literally change everything about us.
Jesus
According to Jesus, this is who you are and who you’re called to be…
“You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.
No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.
– Matthew 5.14-16
Jesus doesn’t say, You are a REFLECTOR of the Light of the World!
No! Jesus says, YOU are the light of the world!
And by the way, it’s hard to know sometimes when you read your english Bible if that word YOU is singular or plural, but right here… it’s not singular. Jesus isn’t talking about YOU, the INDIVIDUAL, are the Light of the World. If Jesus was preaching today in the deep south He would say it this way, “Y’all are the light of the world!”
Who is the light?
The problem is that we don’t know what to do with the fact that on one occasion, Jesus said, “I Am the Light of the world.” – John 8.12. And then on another occasion, here, where Jesus says, “You are the light of the world.”
Which is it? Is HE the light or are WE the light?
And the answer is, YES!
Jesus IS the light of the world — AND — WE are the light of the world.
We’re NOT called to REFLECT the light. That sounds nice. And we can say nice things like, “Be the moon,” or “reflect the light of Christ to others.” And that’s nice, it’s just not what Jesus said.
Jesus said, I AM the light of the world — AND — Jesus said YOU are the light of the world!
And what I want to suggest today is that BEING A LIGHT is much more powerful than REFLECTING A LIGHT.
Blinded Over & Over Again
BUT… Forgetting your IDENTITY leads to FEAR, DOUBT, and DARKNESS.
And what happens for so many of us, especially on our darkest days, is that we’ve lost SIGHT of WHO we really ARE.
What happens is that I forget I am the light of the world. What happens is that YOU forget you are the light of the world. What happens is that WE get blinded by the darkness. To be blunt, we get blinded by the Prince of DARKNESS. The Prince of BLINDNESS. And he blinds us OVER and OVER and over and over and over again.
George Bailey
In 1946, Director Frank Capra produced a film that is watched every year around this time by millions of people. Maybe you’ve already watched it this year. It’s called, It’s a Wonderful Life.
If you know the story line, it’s about a man by the name of George Bailey. George Bailey has big plans for his life, but over and over and over again, George Bailey sacrifices those plans for the good of his friends, his family, and his hometown of Bedford Falls.
Life has not gone the way George Bailey had planned, and one day life takes a turn that nearly sends him over the edge. Literally. He’s in charge of a small bank in his hometown, the Building and Loan, and somehow $8,000 has gone missing.
George convinces himself that he’s worth more dead than alive and nearly attempts to end his life when an angel, named Clarence, jumps in the river first! Clarence knew that George Bailey would do what George Bailey always does when he sees someone in need. He would forget about himself in that moment and act quickly to help the person in need. And George Bailey jumped in the river and saved Clarence’s life.
Only, what really happened that night was that his new friend Clarence was working to save his life.
What had happened to George is what happens to so many of us, we forget who we are. We forget that our worth or our wealth isn’t attached to money, possessions, or things. If that were true, we would spend all our days trying to amass more, attain more, and be rich by the world’s standards.
WHEN YOU FORGET your IDENTITY it leads to fear, doubt, and darkness. And what happens for so many of us, especially on our darkest days, is that we’ve lost SIGHT of who we really ARE.
Remember
What’s more powerful, a REFLECTOR or a HEADLIGHT?
What’s more powerful, the MOON or the SUN?
Part of our problem is that we’ve been trying to reflect a light instead of being a light.
Part of our problem is that we’ve forgotten WHO WE ARE. We’ve forgotten our IDENTITY as sons and daughters of God.
We’ve forgotten that…
“This message was kept secret for centuries and generations past, but now it has been revealed to God’s people. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you.” – Colossians 1.26-27
“Surely you know that Jesus Christ is in you.” – 2 Corinthians 13.5
We’ve forgotten this truth, that…
“I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” – Galatians 2:20
We’ve forgotten that…
Jesus is the Light of the World and when you believe in Jesus, when you confess Jesus as Lord and Savior of your life, when you RECEIVE the LIGHT of Christ, then the LIGHT of Christ LIVES IN YOU!!!
Be the Light
Bicycles, the Moon, Jesus, and George Bailey.
The reflectors on a bicycle can only reflect light from another source. Just like the Moon can’t generate any light but can only reflect the light of the Sun. But according to Jesus, you aren’t called to be a reflector. You aren’t called to be the moon. You are called the light of the world. Maybe, like our friend George Bailey, you’ve forgotten who you are.
Today, my prayer is that you’ll remember who you are. What you mean to those around you. That you are a person of immeasurable worth. And that YOU ARE the Light of the World because JESUS, the LIGHT of the World, is living in you!
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