Goldfish in the Morgue Devotional
Day 5 - ALS: Alternate Light Source (Ephesians 5:1-13)
ALS: Alternate Light
Scripture Passage: Ephesians 5:1-13
Focal Verse: But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. ~ Ephesians 5:13
You’ve seen the TV shows. A crime scene investigator walks into a darkened room where a murder has taken place and pulls out a little flashlight that shoots of beam of ultraviolet light over every nook and cranny. The device is known as an Alternate Light Source, and after a few painstaking sweeps with it, the astute CSI spots something out of the corner of his eye. A blue-white gleam radiating back at him from the gloom. He zeroes in on the spot, drawing closer to a nearby freshly-painted wall, and the glow intensifies. It spreads. More details are revealed until our hero realizes that what he’s looking at is a swath of blood that has been wiped clean and covered up with paint. Eureka! He thinks. He’s found the evidence he’s been looking for!
While many of us who work in the field roll our eyes at such melodrama and scoff at the unreality of it all (or the major stretching of truth the writers do in making the investigator seem super smart). But in this case, it’s pretty accurate (despite the drama, of course), although blood typically isn’t luminescent simply by shining a UV light on it. The CSI must first spray a chemical on it. Something like Luminol. Or when I was first getting started, Amido Black. Point is, to the naked eye, that blood spatter might never have been discovered. It took a special light and a dash of chemical to expose it.
In today’s passage, Paul warns the Christians at Ephesus to be imitators of God. God is Light, therefore, we as Christians should be light as well. We are exposed by the light of God and through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (akin to Luminol or Amido Black in this analogy), we actually reflect God’s light back into a dark world. Paul goes on to tell us that we shouldn’t participate in the things done in darkness. In fact, he implores us not to even speak of such things as they have a way of contaminating the spirit.
Unfortunately, many people who call themselves ‘Christians’ straddle both the light and darkness. Worse, some hope to conceal the deeds and attitudes they foster in the darkness. But here’s the problem: God is perfect Light. Like the alternate light source the CSI uses, He exposes the things done in darkness. It doesn’t just expose things though, friends. Light eradicates darkness. It gives nothing a place to hide. No sin can stay hidden within God’s light. So with this in mind, consider your actions. Consider your testimony. Consider the things you do when outside the line of sight of your brothers and sisters in Christ. Remember what Moses said about such things in Numbers 32:23b: “…and be sure your sin will find you out.”
Father God, thank you for your glorious light. Thank you for exposing the things that revel in darkness and eradicating darkness altogether with your holiness. Help us, Lord, to reflect your Light into the world and give us strength to avoid the shadows in our lives.