Let your light so shine before men...

24 x 24Matthew 5:16 Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

My grandmother kept a small wooden box in the center of her kitchen table. It was called "God's Treasure Chest" and was filled with small colored cards that each had a different bible verse typed in an old timey typewriter font. When my father and his siblings were young, every morning, my grandmother reached into the treasure box and pulled out a scripture card to read to her young children. She often wept as she read them as she lost my grandfather at a very young age and was left to raise four young children alone.

There was a photo of my grandfather that hung on the wall in the room where I slept when I visited her. I can remember, after being tucked into bed, staring at his picture on the wall to see if maybe I could discover something about him, some insight into who he was, since I never had the privilege of knowing him. He stared back at me with the kindest eyes, and I knew he must have been a loving man. He was the pastor of the First Baptist Church when he died and was a deep lover of the word of God. I have been blessed enough in my adult life to hear his voice in tapes of his sermons and get a glimpse of his heart by reading his letters and teachings on the Word of God. All that to say, the Word of God was important to my grandparents and hence, "God's treasure chest" sat in the middle of the table where they gathered for home cooked meals.

Whenever I visited my grandmother's home, I used to love to thumb through that wooden box and read the worn and faded scripture cards. There was never a time when that box did not sit in the center of her table. There were not many things I asked for when my grandmother passed away many years ago, but I did ask for a few books that she had read to me often and the little wooden box. It seems as if it is always the simplest things from my childhood that bring back the sweetest memories. I can remember sitting in her small kitchen, with her tea pot whistling to let us know her water was ready for tea, while I sat quietly arranging and rearranging the cards in her treasure box. I remember the crocheted, afghan like cover that she kept over the extra role of toilet paper in her bathroom, and the candy bowl that always stayed full of toffee and butterscotch. I remember the set of bronze praying hands on her bookshelf and the piano where she taught me to play Silent Night.

Anyway, it was the small details that she probably never even thought about that I remember the most in her home. The treasure box was one of those simple things, and I don't really know why I had such an affection for the little wooden box, but I did. As a child, I certainly didn't understand the scriptures in it as they were all from the King James version; nevertheless, there was something about that box that was sacred to me. Upon her death, my dad and his siblings were gracious enough to allow me to be the guardian of "God's treasure chest" and it sits on the bookshelf in my library.

When I began the painting above, I knew I wanted the painting to be cheerful and bright, but I wasn't clear on a scripture for it. While in the midst of painting this, I was involved in a wonderful bible study called "Experiencing God" in which the lesson of the week was on walking in the light. That is one of those phrases that I've heard a million times but don't know that I've ever really taken the time to understand. My teacher had reminded us that morning of the bible school song, "This little light of mine." The song ran through my mind most of that morning and into the afternoon. I couldn't get it out of my mind even as I was playing with my children later that day.

I began thinking about what it means to "let our lights shine" and not hide them under a "bushel" as the song says. I began thinking that maybe these paintings were a way of letting that light shine. While we were playing, I took a trip to the restroom, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw something sitting on the back of the toilet. I then recognized that it was one of my grandmother's scripture cards from the treasure chest. It was pink and worn and something had been spilled on it in its many years on the kitchen table. It read "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven." (pictured below)

I have no idea how the card got there. I suppose my children had discovered the box and pulled out a few of the cards, but I think the little hands that put it on the back of that toilet were guided by God so that I would see that scripture that day. It was one of those moments where I knew for certain He had something to say to me, a message to deliver.

I absolutely love the way God works and the way he speaks to his children. He speaks in unusual ways, and that day, he used a trip to the restroom and an old and worn scripture card on the back of a toilet seat to confirm his message to me. I immediately knew that the painting above would be about letting our lights shine before men.

At times, I am tempted to shrink back with these paintings and this blog and hide all of it under a "bushel"(what in the world is a bushel, anyway?). But this verse continues to ring in my ear: "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven." I pray that somehow these paintings would be a way of letting the light of Jesus shine through my life and that these "good works" would glorify my Father in heaven. Amen.

Note: "Let your light shine before men" is written around the inside edge of the vase in the painting above.