14 Dec, 2010
Clusters
To much of a good thing.
Every December, my family and I trudge out into the cold to select a Christmas tree. It’s usually far from being perfect, but it’s our tree, and our young children get very excited about helping to decorate it. We spread out the ornaments on our coffee table, and they select the special ornaments they have been given as gifts or their favorite family decorations and hang them on the tree. Their technique will hopefully improve as they grow, but right now they pick a branch or two and try to hang all of their ornaments there, leaving much of the rest of the tree bare. Instead of spreading them out to cover the whole tree, the kids love to hang their ornaments all together, right at their eye level. Even though our tree is at least seven feet tall and takes up a whole corner of our living room, most of the ornaments are clustered in one or two places on the lower branches, and the whole tree looks off balance.
Picture taken from freechristmaswallpapers.net via googleimages
Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Jesus knows that it’s comfortable for us to hang around with other believers. Just like it is with my kids’ clustered ornaments and the many undecorated branches of our Christmas tree, what would have happened if the disciples only showed their faith to each other and only did good things for one another? The good news about Christ would never have reached any farther than the room they gathered in.
Do you have a great group of Christian friends? Good! But don’t get too comfortable staying there. Particularly at Christmas, it’s easy to want to stick close to just our family and friends, but if we stay in our comfortable clusters, those around us may never see the light of the Gospel that we have to offer.
Find an “undecorated branch” this week and be God’s light in that place. Whether it’s offering your lonely neighbor a ride to church on Christmas Eve, or sending a Christmas package to a child halfway around the world, get out there and shine your light.
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