Life as a Sunbeam | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: Life as a Sunbeam | Previous Challenge Entry
By Marilee Alvey
05/27/06
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I’ve been a Christian since, oh, I don’t know….two? For as far back as I can remember, I loved Jesus and wanted to please him. When I was two, I’d sing, “Jesus wants me for a sunbeam to shine for him each day…” I was little enough that I accepted that as truth without questioning. I can remember one particular morning, at age three, I stood outside, in the yard. Sticking my chubby little hands into my blue jeans pockets, I thought, I’m going to please Jesus and not tell a lie all day. Funny. Even then I knew it was a hard job.

Most people say that they’ve had Jesus into their head, but not into their heart, and so, their faith did not become real until it bridged that last twelve inch gap. For me, it’s been reversed. I’ve had Jesus in my heart, but not in my head. When you have him in your heart and not your head, you love him and want to please him, but you can have some false, shallow ideas about him. For example, I used to think that I just had to be good to get into Heaven. I also thought that God would, somehow, let everyone into Heaven because God loves us all. Using that mindset, Jesus dying on the cross has no purpose.

I’m now fifty-five years old and I’ve realized that, while I have the heart love, my head has to play a giant game of catch up. I have enjoyed taking part in countless Bible Studies and small groups, even leading quite a few. I now understand that we are saved by faith and not by works. I know that no one is good enough, on their own, to earn eternal life, but that Jesus died so that we could live with him forever. However…..

…in some ways I have come full circle. Remember the best-selling book where the author claimed that everything he’d learned that was worthwhile he learned in Kindergarten? Well, I believe that the essence of my faith was learned as a two or three year old, in Sunday School. Just today as I worked on my Bible Study, using a separate volume of commentaries, it hit me with a jolt: I still can’t say my purpose better than that little song I loved so well, so very long ago:

“Jesus wants me for a sunbeam to shine for him each day.
Jesus wants me for a sunbeam, at home, at school, at play.
A sunbeam, a sunbeam, Jesus wants me for a sunbeam.
A sunbeam, a sunbeam, I’ll be a sunbeam for him.”

There, in that long ago nutshell lay the wisdom of the ages. God created me for his glory and asks me to reflect his love in my life, wherever I go. I am his delight, so I should rejoice and, out of love for him, go and shine my light. It’s as simple as that.

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