Glow Sticks

By Missey Butler
Guest Writer

CBN.com -- I love it when God shows me an object lesson right in the middle of having fun. It happened the other evening when my little nephew, Phillip Michael and I were playing the memory card game.

My sister, Kate was hosting a dinner party and had asked me if I would be the wonderful 'auntie' that I am, and entertain 'little man' (as we affectionately call him) in the den, while the adults enjoyed an evening of fellowship.

“Why of course,” was my response as I hustled off to the Dollar Tree to stock up on fun stuff to occupy this active little seven-year-old.

I decided to play Treasure Hunt with him by hiding each one of the goodies in the crooks and crannies of the room. Then, by giving him clues, he could search them out. Surprisingly, it proved to be a good plan, because it kept him pre-occupied for most of the evening.

One prize in particular that held his curiosity were the glowsticks. He was delighted to discover them hiding between the throw pillow and the sofa cushion. I watched him as his eyes lit up.

“I know how to work these,” he said excitedly.

"Work these?" I said to myself. "What’s to work? Don’t they just do their glow thing when you cut out the lights?"

"No way Aunt Missey, there’s a special secret to make the glow stuff come out," Phillip Michael said.

Wiith his little hands he proceeded to bend them completely in two. I started to cringe, because I just knew that he was going to break them open, and then we’d have glow stuff everywhere.

But amazingly as the sticks were bent, a beautiful golden substance slowly began to fill up the hollow tube, and glow brightly against the darkness of the room.

Later that evening after 'little man' was tucked in bed and sound asleep, I quietly gathered up all the scattered glowsticks that were definitely the highlight of our evening. I sat down and held up one of them in my hand, gazing at its mysterious luminescence. I soon began to correlate how Christians' are similar to glowsticks.

In order for us to manifest the glory of God, we must first become emptied containers. We have to rid ourselves of ourselves. This is all part of recognizing that within our own selves, we can do nothing.

John 5:30 says,

"By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me." (NIV)

We must humble ourselves to the point of brokenness. Until we come to a place of pronouncing ourselves dead to all self effort, we have no real life in us.

This is the place that Jesus Himself came to, there in the garden of Gethsemane. He fought with the forces of His humanity to the point of sweating droplets of blood. We learn from His example that our wills never die easily.

We must all come to our own personal olive press, (the true meaning of Gethsemane) in order to say just as He did, “Not my will, but thy will be done.”

A most magnificent thing begins to transpire when we become broken. Just like the plastic tubing that was bent in two, suddenly our spirits become illuminated with the very glory of God. We begin to shine forth His “Shekinah Glory” that will manifest itself to a very darkened world.

As we make way for His way, we become those wonderful Glow-sticks that manifest “His Likeness” to many a soul who have lost their way.

Isaiah 60:2 says,

"For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee."

All Glory to the Most High God!

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