Light is defined as the natural agent that stimulates sight and makes things visible. I can say that in my community, Christ is becoming increasingly more visible. He is being illuminated through them a little more each day.
Today we visited homes of elderly in our ministry town of Montrious (Mo-we), Haiti. We walked into one woman’s home and she was lying on her make-shift cinder block and wooden bed on the porch. We were told that she could barely walk. After praying, we asked what else we could do for her – her request: a therapeutic massage.
A few of my teammates worked on her legs and I massaged her weak arm. I saw a tear slowly migrate down the lines of her cheek. The smell of urine overtook my senses. Chandler eagerly asked if there was anything else we could do. She looked at the translator to ask if the women would like a bath. She nodded with a “oui”. I saw Chan’s face brighten, “We can do that!” Chandler and Mariah had experience with nursing and elderly care and there was no hesitation.
We were told that the front yard of the home was the best place to wash. Lindsay, Julie and I did our best to stand in front and act as a shield for the exposed woman. Chandler and Mariah washed as the woman sat in her wheelchair. Behind me I heard them share laughter in their agreement that the water was cold. I looked back as they draped the towel across her back. They both grinned the most genuine smiles at her. Chan clipped her nails and massaged lotion onto her skin.
This image poked holes into my reserve. I could feel the all too familiar warmth of tears filling my eyes. The salty drops flowed into the sweat on my face. I locked eyes with Julie and Linds as we all silently concurred in our emotions. Julie pointed out that moments like this remind her that everything else that consumes our daily thoughts aren’t really all that important. We nodded in solidarity and laughed at our tears.
The tears weren’t just from my heart hurting for this woman and her pain. The tears were an overflowing thankfulness that I get to do life with people who depend on their communion with Jesus and trusting that He will work through them. In moments like this I could see Christ beaming in them.
After ministry that morning, we walked to the beach and ran into the clear blue ocean just because (and by ran I mean I face planted within the first few steps).
These are the people I’ve done life with for the past 10 months. People who join in running to the ocean with regular clothes on without questioning. People who wash an elderly woman we’ve never met without hesitation. People who reflect God’s love.
2 years ago I prayed for community. My dominant thought after ministry that day was that what I was given was far better than I imagined.
This praise is not for my teammates and friends, although they are pretty amazing. The praise is for the work Jesus is continually doing in them. We don’t have it all together and our worldly desires and insufficiencies can still get in the way. We forget to refill the toilet paper (mostly me) and can selfishly take the last bite of community peanut butter (guilty again), but today I saw that familiar light shining through the cracks of our broken mosaic pieces.
I know, I know. I’m tiptoeing close on the edge of sounding cliche talking about ‘being a light in the world’ and ‘shine your light’. I promise I’m doing my best to find synonyms to avoid sounding like a broken VBS record.
It’s said so many times for a reason. I have a running list of verses in the Bible referencing light and needless to say, I’m running out of room. The only other word that best describes this light is simply: love.
When we spend time in God’s presence we radiate as Moses did when he came down from Mount Sinai. The Bible says, “the skin of his face shone because he had been talking to God” (Exodus 34:29).
I recently learned from my insightful friend, Lindsay that after Moses went in before the Lord, he had to wear a veil when going back out to the people of Israel. There was also a veil in the tabernacle that separated those who were allowed in God’s holy presence from those who were not. The good news is that when Jesus died for our sins the veil was torn from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51). At that moment we were all granted the opportunity to lift the darkness of sin and have the skin of our face shine with the presence of God.
I’m no theologian and I won’t pretend to know it all, but I do know we are all able to hear God’s still whisper. The more I know that I’m loved, despite my iniquities, the more I’m able to love. This is something I’m still working on. I also know the more time I spend in his presence and getting to know His character the more Christ in me is able to radiate (Psalm 34:5).
It was that light of love in the face of my friends today that brought me to tears. That light that I’ve seen in faces all around the world and my prayer is that despite our brokenness, the light will only continue to engulf the dark.
I believe there’s more. When I go home and my World Race community is no longer traveling in our familiar group of 47, I’ll look to surround myself with this kind of light. My hope is that you can find this ‘sight stimulating agent’ in community as well and if you’re lucky – they’ll share some peanut butter and spontaneously run into the waves with you too.
