LIGHT...

I had to relocate about two thirds of my house plants to the basement when I put up the Nativity sets for Christmas last month.  There just wasn't room to keep them where they normally provided such a rich green jungle for my elephants on the baker's rack in the kitchen and supplied other living oases throughout the house.

However, a month is a long time to be in the dark.  Oh sure, the lights were on while I was downstairs working, and there is some light that comes in the two basement windows. Plus I made sure the plants were still watered and the soil moist while they were down the basement, too.  I didn't neglect them!

But... when I closed the front door on the last of the Nativity Open House guests the night of January 10th, and I went downstairs to retrieve my precious plants, I was more than a little upset at what I found.  I was heartsick!  Four or five of the really delicate ones that need constant watering were outright dead.  The soil was still wet, but the stems were shriveled and the leaves were limp and lifeless, too.  Some of the others had grown tall and rangy, trying for some light I would assume.  They weren't so good looking either.  Still others were on the "okay" side, but their leaves looked like they had been bleached--they were streaked with white and they looked close to albino.  Not deep green at all.  And the rest, like the dense and leafy "Elephant Bush" ( yes, that's really the name of it--so it said on the little CARE pick that came with it) and a couple of others have stems and vines that now drop leaves if the plant is touched at all, until they are almost bare of any foliage.  The only plant that did okay was the Swedish Ivy.  All out of shape, though, and waaaaay over grown for the planter space it's in.  I think it might have hogged what little natural environment there was since most of the other plants were in much smaller pots.

It wasn't too hard to figure out the problem--not enough light! 

Wouldn't it be something if our temporal bodies reflected  the same kinds of results as my plants every time we deprived them of spiritual light--the light of Christ?  Instead of strong limbs, some of the arms and legs would be shriveled and the hands and feet drop off if someone were to touch them.  Or the pigment of our skin started fading when we didn't spend enough time feasting on the scriptures i.e.feeding ourselves the light of Christ.   What if that "growth spurt" causing a gangly  body was the result of concentrating on just a pinpoint of the gospel instead of the whole smorgasbord of saving principles?  What if the consequences were physically visible?

We are taught that Christ is our one true source of light.  We teach our kids to "walk in His light".  We seek to have the light of Christ in our own persona.  We pray that we can radiate the Savior's light by our choices and actions.

But just like the situation with my plants, we need to make sure we have enough light.  We cannot be overshadowed by people and practices that dim the light.  We cannot afford to take a "vacation" in the dark--even a little dark or dark that glows with neon lights.  We might have enough water to get by.  But if we don't have enough of the right kind of light, we are going to stunt our spiritual growth.

That was a surprisingly forceful object lesson for me when I brought my little plants upstairs only to find that all the loving care and coddling I had expended on them was wasted because I didn't leave a light on for them during the time they had to be in the basement.  They had given me such pleasure to see them respond and grow with my constant care.  Now they are changed.

Absence of LIGHT will do some serious damage to us, if not outright cause us to shrivel up and die a spiritual death.  So keep that light switched to "ON"!

I'm going to miss those friendly little plants....