The Lesson of the Moth

Lately, the Lord has been impressing upon me the need to increase my openness to His presence in my everyday life. To look for Him in the ordinary. I recently purchased a book entitled, "Contemplative Vision, a guide to Christian Art and Prayer." The author is Juliet Benner. She is an international retreat and workshop leader as well as a spiritual director. Juliet uses art as a means of connecting to God. In the book she focuses your attention on a variety of art work with Christian themes. The purpose of the book is to draw you to "enter in" and meditate on the particular painting allowing God to share His word to you through the Holy Spirit. I have found this contemplative exercise exciting and very rich in the lessons God has to teach me. My blog entry which focused on the Matisse painting "La Danse" is an example of this type of spiritual discipline. After focusing on one of the paintings in the book, I asked the Lord to increase my awareness of His presence. His response was to challenge me to meditate on the image of a moth drawn to the light. The question laid on my heart was, "What draws the moth to the light?" The next day after I came home from work as I was walking up the stairs to open the door, a tiny moth landed on my pants leg. I was excited as I felt it was an answer to prayer about being aware of God's presence, especially since I had been challenged to think about moths. However, that event did not fully answer the question about what draws them to the light. I began wracking my brain over all the possibilities.  I thought about the qualities of moths and the characteristics of light to no avail. Out of frustration I decided to go to the source of answers to all questions--Google! As I was searching, there were many interesting theories but I wasn't feeling any closer to an answer. The Lord finally impressed upon my heart, "You won't find the answer among men." The "spiritual two by four" hit its target. To the Scripture I went and finally understood that there was a connection between the moth attracted to light and the one that landed on my pants leg. Light represents the presence of God and His creation is attracted to it. Jesus said, "I am the light of the world." (John 9:5)  In 1 John 1:5 we read, "God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all." The gospel of John proclaims Jesus as, "The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world."(John 1:9) The remarkable thing is that we as believers in Jesus Christ also reflect His light. Jesus tells his followers, "You are the light of the world." (Matthew 5:14) He further exhorts us not to hide our light but to, "...let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." (Matthew 5:16) These are just a few of the Scripture references that refer to light and the presence of God throughout the Old and New Testament. The lesson God was teaching me was that little moth was attracted to His presence in me! What a profound thought! The light of God's Spirit is so strong within us that even creation is attracted to it. This thought further deepened my understanding of the many times God gifted me with the opportunity to get up close and personal to dragonflies. I encourage you to be open to God's presence around you. Let the Spirit of Christ so shine through you that not only will people take notice but so will creation.
Be Blessed,
Pastor Sheree