A 4-foot chicken snake was curled up in the hen’s nest when Daddy reached for the eggs. A few days later, he was out of town and needed a favor of me: feed his chickens and collect the eggs…

Inside the dark barn, everything looked like a snake to me.

His barn is darkest at noon, when the sun is directly overhead and shadows hide between the shafts of light. It felt like the Temple of Doom as I reached down inside a deep bag of feed.

I still had to get those eggs from the nest.

The gossiping hens murmured whaaaaat-what-what-what and eyed me like I was about to die, but this was my daddy’s barn, and I was doing what he told me to do so his animals didn’t starve while he was away.

 

 

So, with zero courage, I acted out of obedience, because I love my Daddy.

 

If you love Me, you’ll keep My commands…

My command is this: love each other.

~ Jesus

What’s more, I know how very much he loves his animals. I’ve watched him brush a bull the size of a buffalo, with its head down, leaning in like a kitten.

I’ve watched him scrub the pig pen with bleach water, explaining that most people don’t know pigs like to be clean. They wallow in mud to keep cool since they don’t have sweat glands, but they prefer to be rinsed clean.

Oh, I know how they feel. Maybe every Christ-follower does. We long to follow Jesus without being misunderstood by each other, while religion leaves rope burns on our necks and makes us afraid everything is a snake.

 

Come to me, all who are weary and burdened…

~ Jesus

We just want to love God and love people, the only two commandments there are.

We do want to be holy—wholly His…

And to bear His burden of Light.

 

…My burden is light…

~ Jesus

But sometimes we get all caked in the mud of habit and tradition. So we meet together and pray for each other, and Jesus washes us down with His sweet grace so we can shine again.

 

Think of ways to encourage each other toward acts of love and good deeds…

~ Hebrews 10:24

That day in the barn, as I reached into the nest hoping nothing would bite me, I thought of God, how the Father of Lights shines into darkness and His very Presence exposes the shadows…not so we can avoid them, but so we can see them more clearly, because that’s where He’s sending us.

 

See, I’m sending you out as sheep among wolves, so be shrewd as snakes and innocent as doves.

~ Jesus

And we do what He tells us to do, because we love Him—yes—but much more, because He loves us.

 

Do you love Me? Feed my sheep.

~ Jesus

The Beautiful One loves us.

For Him, we go into the darkness of His barns to feed His hungry people, who cluck and murmur, not realizing the Good News of salvation has come.

 

The radiance of the Lord shined down on them, and they were terrified. But the angel said, Don’t be afraid. I bring you Good News that will cause tremendous joy for all the people.

~ Luke 2:9-10

 

Because when God’s Grace shines on His people, we remember the overwhelming euphoria of His kindness; we stop spreading darkness and start spreading Light…

 

Everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.

~ Ephesians 5:13

That is why The Bible says,

Wake up! Wake up, sleeper! Rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you!

~ Ephesians 5:14

 

Christians, you are loved! You are forgiven! You are light in Christ Jesus!

 

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light!

~ Ephesians 5:8

Live as children of light. The Good News is good. It always was.

If you feel like darkness or find yourself casting a whole bunch of shadows, consider this…Maybe you’ve never heard—really heard—the Good News.

And I pray that you, being deeply rooted in love, may have the power along with the rest of God’s people, to finally grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to experience this love that goes far beyond knowledge, so you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

~ Ephesians 3:17-19