What I like about the night

So I've been thinking today about how much I love the night time. It's so peaceful and quiet. And I love how it smells at night time. I never really noticed it as much until I was at least a Senior in high school. It just smells good, especially in spring time.

Something else I love about the night time is the lack of noise that can be heard during the day. Don't get me wrong, I love the day time, too. It's great. However, there's nothing like sitting outside on a porch or on a blanket in the yard at night with quiet surrounding you.

I also love the nights in the summer time. I live in a small town in the country. At night here, I enjoy coming outside to listen to the frogs and the crickets. They seem to be singing to the dancing fireflies who are so care free looking. I can't even fathom how much creativity it took to create a bug who can make the lower half of his body light up. I guess that's why I'm human.

The thing I like most about the night time is the moon. I love looking at the moon and trying to figure out whether or not the color of the moon is what I thought it would be. One of the things I love about the moon is the fact that it acts as a mirror among other things. Because it can't produce it's own light, it reflects the light of the sun.

A friend of mine from Freed and I had a somewhat lengthy conversation about this one night after church. I had gone back to campus to eat dinner after Bible study on a Wednesday (partly because I didn't have time to do it beforehand) and he went back to his house. He called me just as I was finishing up dinner and told me to look at the moon. So I did. The whole length of the conversation lasted with me sitting in the commons talking to him on the phone about the moon. I haven't looked at the moon the same way since that conversation.

We talked about how a christian should be like the moon. We can't reflet our own light (because we are humans, and we sin). A christian can't go through life by his or herself, because we are not perfect beings. Only one is perfect. If we could be perfect, there would not be any need for God, Jesus, his sacrefice or our need and the necessity of our salvation.

Christians are supposed to be examples to the world around us. Matthew 5:13-16 talks about how we are both salt and light to the world. The way we reflect Christ is by him living in us and us following him and walking in His light.

Christians are also commanded to go into the world and save the lost (Mt. 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-16). It is our responsibility to go save these people. God doesn't want any one to die but for everyone to be saved. Once we ourselves become christians, we have to learn how to deny ourselves and follow Christ (Mk 8:24). If we do that, then then the world can see Christ living in us and can see what kind of example we are. We need to shine the light from the SON as spiritual moons in this dark 'night' (the night being death) just like the physical moons shine light from the SUN at night.

Be the light, salt and a moon.