Glow in the dark Christians

One of the magical things about growing up in the 1950s and early 1960s was glow-in-the-dark objects. I had a figurine of the Blessed Virgin Mary that glowed with a ghostly light, and I thought it nearly miraculous. Like Henry Ford’s first cars, such luminous items came in any color you wanted—as long as it was green.

At the time I did not know how these things worked. No one had told me about phosphors (like strontium aluminate or zinc sulfide) and how they store energy from the light in a room and then release it in the form of gradually dissipating emissions.

All I knew was that the figurine or yo-yo or mobile had to be held close to a light source and to soak up its rays or it would not do its wonders. It worked, in other words, on borrowed light and not its own self-generated power source.

I also knew that the trick wouldn’t last for more than 10 minutes unless you kept going back to the light to recharge it.

By this time you have guessed my direction: You and I, fellow Christians, are veritable glow-in-the-dark objects. The parallels are unmistakable. We are able to glow thanks to a borrowed light from the One whose name is “the light of the world,” Jesus Christ.

The confusing thing at first is that Jesus also calls us the “light of the world”:

But there is no contradiction, since now you understand that Jesus is thinking of us as glow-in-the-dark objects, as it were. You are a “light of the world” in the same way that my BVM figurine was—useless by itself but magical when first exposed to a light source.

The parallel follows through in other ways: In order to keep being a light, you and I have to keep coming back to the light source frequently and spending some time there.

But once we have spent time there—that is, in God’s Word and in prayer—we are good to go.

Also, like my old glow-in-the-dark object, our light is seen best in dark places. Put us in an environment that is pitch black and we will pierce the blackness. The darkness is not able to overcome the light; there is no contest. In the case of humans rather than inanimate objects, the word for this principle is not luminescence but “abiding”

“Abide in me and I in you. … [F]or apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:4-5, ESV).

A friend of mine was concerned that because she didn’t have a job in ministry she could therefore not be a glow-in-the-dark instrument for God. I told her that all that is required is that she spend regular time with God, and that people will notice the magic in her without her even particularly trying.

And his light comes in all colors, not just green.