Brighten the Corner Where You Are

Yesterday, at a beautiful Fall Retreat with 28 precious women, a scripture contained in a “love letter” from God to us, resonated with me: “You are a child of the light and a child of the day. You do not belong to the night or to the darkness.” 1 Thessalonians 5:5. Literally, a light came on in my noggin as I read that — a solar light, that is.

My mind drifted to the solar light (see photo here) that I have that is really very cool — but only if it’s left outside in the sunlight so that it draws in the light to make it work. Not being a science buff, I really didn’t ponder how it worked before yesterday at that retreat, and then even more so, once I got home. (I love the ability to search for answers on the internet). I knew I a blog was coming about solar light.

Many years ago, the thought of powering lights by harnessing the power of the Sun sounded like science fiction. Today, though, you can see solar panels on the rooftops of buildings and houses, as well as street lights in some cities. If you have a garden or landscaping at home, you might even have solar-powered lights guiding your path at night.

Solar lights work because of the solar cell. The fact is, the most important part of a solar light is the solar cell. The solar cell is the part that converts sunlight into direct electrical current. You can clearly see the solar cell as a dark panel at the top of a solar light.

As sunlight passes through the solar cell, positively-charged spaces then transfer an electron stream as a direct current of electricity through wires embedded into the solar cell to a battery where the electricity is stored until it’s needed. The battery charges throughout the day as sunlight continues to be converted to electricity. (This makes me sound like Clifton Janey, right, Staci Wallace? Clifton was a brainy kid in Staci’s elementary school days.)

This process repeats on a daily cycle. During the day, sunlight is converted to electricity and stored in the battery. At night, the battery supplies the electricity to the light until it is all used up or the photoreceptor shuts off the light as daylight reappears.

So……with all that scientific mumbo jumbo in mind…..just think about our Creator who had all that in mind before the beginning of time, but better than all that, in referring back to that scripture that explains how we, too, are SOLAR LIGHTS….but not from the SUN, The SON. When we purposefully stay close to THE LIGHT of Christ, our batteries will be so charged with His Light that we, too, will shine so brightly. Just look at how God planned that we should be SOLAR — SON Lights. Luke 11:33 “No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light.”

If EVER, we need to stay close to THE LIGHT — it is today. We ARE children of THE LIGHT….and we don’t belong to the darkness. So that we continue to shine brightly to a very DARK world, may we make sure we are living close to God and His Word, and surely His LIGHT in us will penetrate the darkness around us! Our world might just be a little corner and we might wonder how can we affect our world. That sweet old song gives the answer….”Brighten the corner where you are….you just may be the safe harbor to carry them to a place of refuge,hope and peace — that is so needed in our world!”