Best of One Ringing Bell: Twilight and Twinkles
This summer, I'm continuing to share some of my most viewed posts--this one about a sweet reminder. This piece first ran in 2018.
One recent evening, Jerry and Iwalked a bit later than we usually do. As we approached an area where we knowdeer hang out, we were watchful because we didn’t want to be caught between adoe and her fawns.
But that evening, we didn’t see anydeer, but something else.
“Oh, wow, look at that,” I said.Jerry stopped and turned. I pointed to a field. “Fireflies.”
In the twilight, hundreds of themtwinkled randomly. It had been a long time since I'd seen so many. A smile easedacross my face.
We stood in the street for awhile and watched, both of us remembering with joy catching them in mason jarswhen we were kids.
Later, I discovered a few randomfacts while reading about fireflies.
If a field where fireflies liveis paved over, they don’t go to another field. They simply fade away. That maybe one reason why firefly populations are in decline.
Fireflies possess chemicals,which have proven to be useful in research on cancer, multiple sclerosis,cystic fibrosis, and heart disease. They are also useful in the garden as theyfeed on other insect larvae.
They are unique. No other insecthas light producing structures in their abdomen. This fact reminded me of asign a friend gave me, a snippet of a children’s song.
“This little light of mine, I’mgonna let it shine . . .”
It’s a reminder that we areunique and we also have special light producing structures.
Jesus said, “You are the light ofthe world” and “. . . let your light shine before others, that they may seeyour good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14, 16).
God wants to use us to bring Hislight in dark places, and as Jerry has said, we let our lights shine; we don’tshine our lights. There’s a difference. Others are drawn to us as they see Godat work in our lives, but the opposite usually happens if we’re constantly blindingthem with our talk.
We have to think about how our actions might or might not bring glory to God in the places we go and the things that we do. We may try to explain away certain things, but in the end, what we maybe doing is making excuses. To allow God to use us in bringinglight, we may have to alter our actions. Believe me; I have had to alter mine.In fact, it is an ongoing process.
I wonder when God sees us, it’s like how Jerryand I saw the fireflies in the field.
All over the world, we aretwinkling in the darkness bringing joy to the Father’s heart.
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var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-24260977-1']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();Beverly Varnado's most recent book is In Search of the Painted Bunting, a middle grade historical from Elk Lake Publishing, #1 in new releases in its category. She is also the author of several small town romances from Anaiah Press including her latest, A Season for Everything. All are available at Amazon. To explore the web version of One Ringing Bell, please visit bev-oneringingbell.blogspot.comTo sign up for her newsletter, go to http://eepurl.com/dHNdsX Beverly Varnado copyright 2023
