Consider the Firefly

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John 3:30: “He must increase, but I must decrease- He must grow more prominent, I must grow less so.” (Amplified Version)

I recently taught a Bible Study on this verse. Jesus Christ must be manifested in our life. He is the One that is to be seen, not us. Yes, God uses people- but the world should see Jesus Christ in us. 2 Corinthians 4:7 states: “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.” And Colossians 1:27 tells us that Jesus Christ in us is the hope of glory. All through the New Testament you can find verses that tell us that Jesus Christ is this treasure inside of us—we are the clay pots and He is the treasure. Others should not see the clay pot- they should see the treasure- Jesus Christ- inside of us. In order for this to happen, we must decrease—yield our lives to Him, submit our wills to Him—and Christ must increase- be magnified in our bodies and in our lives, be Lord of all we say and do.

While studying these verses a picture of the firefly came to my mind. I love the summer evenings, when it begins to get dark and pretty soon you start to see them. One or two at first, then several—little lights that come up from the ground. The darker the night gets, the more these little insects shine. I did a little research on these insects and found out that they have light organs underneath their abdomens. As I thought about these tiny insects and the beautiful light that they emit, I thought about our lives.

At night, you don’t see the insect- all you see is the light glowing from the inside of their bodies. Its’ little body becomes transparent, invisible-(decreases) -- but- the light—becomes visible-(increases). It is all that we see. ALL YOU SEE IS THE LIGHT! Its’ body is really nothing of beauty. It is just a bug! I don’t get much pleasure out of looking at a firefly in the daylight. I want to see what happens to it in the night. I want to see the light. I enjoy watching for it, waiting for it to fly up from the ground. I want to behold its’ LIGHT!

That is how it should be with us as Christians. We carry that treasure- that LIGHT-Jesus Christ- inside of us—but we must allow Him to shine forth. We have to decrease- meaning- we have to allow the Lord to take over our lives- giving up our wills and yielding over to the will of the Lord. When we do this, Jesus Christ increases inside of us. People will see the LIGHT of Jesus Christ shining out of us. No- we don’t give up our personalities. We are still the same person God has created. But we yield it all over to Him. We become transparent- especially in the night. How many people do you know who are going through some kind of darkness right now? They are going through trials and struggles. God wants us to be like that firefly—glowing in the dark, so that people see our light and are drawn to the LIGHT- Jesus Christ. The world is in darkness and the darkness is getting worse. Just as when Jesus Christ was born into the world-so now the world is in darkness- in other words- so many people do not know nor wish to know that LIGHT- Jesus Christ. John 1:5-9- talks about Jesus Christ being that LIGHT that was to come into the world. Today- Jesus Christ is being shown to the world through His Church. The Church must be like Him- we must allow the LIGHT of Jesus Christ to shine through us- as we decrease in our wills and ways, and allow Him to increase- to take over our lives.

Consider the firefly. It is not a beautiful insect in itself. But when the darkness sets in, he becomes transparent and the light shines.

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