I was asked for a recommendation for a good gift for a four year old.  Without hesitation, I answered, "flashlight."

As a kid, I loved playing with a flashlight as much I enjoyed throwing a ball against our brick garage wall.  My family was a big outdoors crew. Our family vacations were serious, walk-a-mile into the woods and set up camp experiences. Having a good walking stick and flashlight were standard, flashlights gave comfort in the dark nights in the woods and were way cool to shine on the inside of the tent walls.

Give a kid a flashlight and they are entertained for hours. Ever play flashlight tag?

In these days in which we journey --- another school shooting, cruel hoaxes of a possible active shooter, anger, tension, fear, and...oh, yeah, a former US president about to be indicted --- yowzers....we need light and lots of it in whatever way we can get it, shine it, be it.

The followers of Jesus are called to be the light of the world and to shine; one of the first songs we learn as kids at Vacation Bible School or Sunday School is "This Little Light of Mine" and it's tune and words are easy to learn and to be sung ad infinitum. And it is....blessed be.

There is the familiar phrase of "either be the light or reflect the light."  I offer another in one of those "Holy Nudge" moments that I read during today's morning Quiet Time:  

“SOMETIMES OUR LIGHT GOES OUT, BUT IS BLOWN INTO FLAME BY AN ENCOUNTER WITH ANOTHER HUMAN BEING. EACH OF US OWES THE DEEPEST THANKS TO THOSE WHO HAVE REKINDLED THIS LIGHT.”  

~ Albert Schweitzer

.....find it....be it.....become it.....