From the "I-thought-I-had-seen-everything" category. Last evening my wife and I went to Cynthiana to participate in "The Gate", a youth program that my oldest son had a hand in beginning. He had come back from Wisconsin to lead the worship for the closing session for this school year and we decided to be there with him.
The half hour drive from the Harrison County High School back to our home in Georgetown was relatively uneventful. Until we saw two barns lit up in a way I had never seen before. Both barns were similar structures with a drive through center section and an open loft. It was the loft in each barn that caught our eyes. Both lofts were illuminated by two chandeliers.
"That's a bit extravagant," I thought to myself. It seemed like a collossal waste of money to place two absolutely beautiful chandeliers in each barn. They did brighten the somewhat weather beaten facade of the two structures. Of course, light always does that. That is when it hit me. Why did I think that was so extravagant when God has does the same for us through Christ Jesus?
When we accept Christ as our Savior nothing physical changes for us. However, we now have something within us that is greatly different than before. We have the light of Christ. "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." John 1:4 "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:16
God's extravagance toward us is amazing. We are nothing but old weather beaten barns. We have been through the tough things life has to throw our way. "We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed -- always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body." 2 Corinthians 4:8-10 God has placed an extravagant light in us in the life of Jesus. "Let your light so shine."