Did you know you have a light inside of you? Learn what that means and how to turn it on!
Today I want to tell you a little story that we will not only enjoy but learn from.
Yesterday I was on the metro train heading to my friend's birthday. It was late and I'll be honest I was looking for a little inner boost for the socialising that was about to follow. The journey was about 30 minutes long so I wanted to use that time to prepare. I was unmotivated and a little low on battery so I was just praying on the train, trying to go through some blog ideas and listening to some worship music that I hoped would really lift my spirits.
As I was working on a blog post, I suddenly realised that something was standing straight to my left. I didn't bother to take a look but merely assumed it was a suitcase or something as people were getting on and off at every stop. Finally, I lifted my eyes from the phone screen and realised that right next to my seat was a baby stroller and in it sat the most precious little baby girl.
She was sitting up looking around the moving train with such curiosity and intrigue, I couldn't help but smile. Eventually she spotted me too and looked straight at me: a little confused and little stuck as to how to react, she merely stared at me sitting next to her. It was then that I realised she couldn't even tell I was smiling at her. I pulled my mask down and made some funny faces. Slowly, her cheeks lifted and finally she flashed me the most beautiful toothless smile.
For the next 20 or so minutes, I merely interacted with her as she pulled on her toes, laughed, screamed her syllables and practically got the attention of everyone in the train carriage. Men and women would come in, notice her and smile widely. Many also tried to make her smile through words or funny faces. We all laughed when one of the men who was playing with her had disembarked the train yet the baby would not stop staring at the door, expecting for him to return.
When my stop finally came, I was heart-broken at the thought of never seeing that beautiful, cute face again; I waved at her a thousand times, even as the train began to move, she kept her eye out to spot me at least one more time through the windows.
I arrived the birthday party with such joy and energy in my heart -- I was beaming.
We hold the certain ability to bring light and joy to everyone around us.
What this experience taught me is how Jesus can bring joy to us through the simplest things. All we need to do is listen and respond. But even more than that, I could see everyone's faces when they stepped on the train next to this little girl: they were changed. You would have to be made of stone to look at that adorable, innocent face and not smile.
The Holy Spirit then spoke to me: you see, that's how you are.
We hold that same ability to bring light and joy to everyone around us, all because we hold Jesus in our hearts. Just as a baby can lift the spirits of everyone passing by and bring light to a monotone place, so can we. We bring light with the hope we hold inside, the salvation and gratitude of being cleansed and forgiven.
I've never understood how you can meet a saved child of God and practically feel darker and heavier when you leave them than when you arrived: despite whatever we may be going through, our light is still capable of lifting people's spirits. So use that! Allow the light inside you to bring people back to their best selves, to encourage them and lift them above the water. Don't try to hide it or disguise it as something else. You never know who might need that light to see the very same truth that will then turn on the light inside of them.
Your purpose is to be loved by God not to love Him.
Your purpose is to be loved by God not to love Him. You were created to be loved by Him. How beautiful is that? And sometimes when we go through pain and struggle, we forget how loved we are, and that that is always something to be grateful for. It's always something that has the power to shine light in the darkness.
And what's even greater is that whilst this beautiful baby was on my left, a woman sat to my right, going through bible sermons on her phone and listening to a message about the love of Jesus and how it makes us different.
I mean, if that's not God, I don't know what is.
This was a simple and straightforward post. But God wanted me to write it. So here I am, telling you what He told me: remember that you're loved, you're made to be loved, and the hope that you bear inside you is always capable of lighting up a room.