Reach for the Light - Martin Wiles

They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right. Romans 2:15 NLT

“Every year, this random flower comes up.”

An early morning Snap and a picture arrived on my phone from my daughter. Like the flower, our conversations are sometimes random as well. Not that we don’t communicate regularly, but what we communicate about and how long we communicate suits her generation’s style of talking.

“It’s a hyacinth and a bulb flower,” I responded.

“But I pulled it up two years ago before landscaping my yard, and I put a grass barrier down over the area.”

I told her she obviously didn’t get the bulb. “God designed it to reach for the light, and that’s what it’s doing.”

I got the traditional hand-over-the-face meme when I told her this would make a good writing topic. But she got the point.

My wife and I have had flowers do the same thing. We once decided to plant Mexican petunias, not knowing they were considered invasive—that is, they spread like crazy. We worked for months and even years to eliminate them when we decided we didn’t want them anymore. But each spring, some magically appeared again. They were reaching for the light—doing what God designed them to do.

Romans is Paul’s theological dissertation, and in this section, he demonstrates how all people—even those God had not communicated with through the law—still knew what the law was and were responsible to Him. God might not have given them a written law as He did the Jewish people, but He placed the knowledge of right and wrong in their minds. They instinctively knew the difference.

Everyone reaches for the Light. The problem comes in knowing what light we’re reaching for and how we’re supposed to reach the light. Without knowing God’s commands and principles, we’ll always reach in the wrong direction. If a seed or bulb sprouts and goes downward, it will never see the light of day—or grow and do what God designed for it to do.

Left to ourselves, we seek the Light in evil and twisted ways. We pervert relationships, sex, technology, jobs, communities, cities, and the entire world. God created good in us, but when we intermingle it with our sinful nature, we reach for the Light in corrupted ways.

The instinctive thing God wants us to know is that we reach Him, the Light, only by repentance and faith. Once we’ve done that, we can grow, bloom, and produce fruit in healthy and beneficial ways that make the world better.

When my daughter sent me the Snap of the flower, it was in full bloom. My wife and I have grown them before. The bloom doesn’t last long—like most spring bulb plants. But our bloom . . . well, that’s another story. Reaching the Light correctly sets us up to bloom our entire lifetime.

Think of some ways you can bloom for the Light.

Father, help me to bloom brightly for You. 

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