John 3:21 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
One of the things I appreciate about Germany is the rolladen shades that can be raised and lowered to keep out light, heat, and cold. They are on the outside of the windows and roll up and down like a roll top desk. They can be closed to make it almost completely dark, or partially closed allowing little slivers of light to enter between the various slats of the rolladen.
What I like about them is that they make the room dark for sleeping. I like a dark room in which to sleep. You can also close them almost completely and allow air flow while keeping the bugs out. I imagine that they would also help protect windows during a hurricane, although Germany doesn’t get hurricanes.
Cockroaches like the dark as well. I wonder if we are related? I remember one apartment we lived in almost 40 years ago that was infested with cockroaches. They would spray one apartment and the roaches would scramble to the other apartments. Then they would spray their apartment again, and they would scramble back. It was a nightmare.
You would enter the kitchen in the middle of the night and turn on the light, and there they were, scrambling for cover. And there was nothing we could do to stop the invasions. We moved out of that apartment as soon as we could!
Sometimes as Christians we run for cover. We don’t want to be the object of attention or negative press. We want to keep our head down when things are flying our direction. We want safety and security.
But our text today tells us to come into the light so that the work of God can be plainly seen in us. We do what we are supposed to be doing, living holy in this world marred by sin, and the holiness of God shows through us. People ought to be seeing the good that we do. We shouldn’t be hiding it.
But we must be careful of our motives when we are doing the good deeds. We can’t do them ‘to be seen’ or they loose their impact on the world. Our deeds are supposed to be shining examples of yielded people shining the light of the Gospel.
The Arnold Journey 