One of the few outdoor activities in which I try and participate as often as possible is white-water rafting.  It is fast-paced and exciting.  Fortunately for me, you do not have to be in top physical shape to participate in it.  One summer, while rafting, my boat “encountered” a sunken tree.  What I mean by encountered was smashing sideways into it.  During this moment, my body decided that it would be safer in the water than in the boat.

So, I found myself drifting along in the current trying to find a handhold.  While drifting along, I attempted to grab onto the branches of the tree.  Every time I reached out, some thing under the water would push me back away.  I realized that only a small part of the tree was above the water.

Matthew 5:16 says, “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

I think about how I live my life like that tree.  I only let a small part of who I am show.  I hide so much more of me “below the water”.  You can make casual contact with people.  You can live shallow relationships.  What is “below the water” may be what is pushing us away.  Verse 15 tells us asks what’s the point of lighting a lamp if we are going to hide it.  As a Christian, I need to be letting my light shine.  I need to be everything that God wants me to be.  We should not hide the beauty that God has put in each one of us.

Matthew 5:16 says, “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

Shine your light wherever you are.

Soli Deo Gloria!