Let your light shine

Sometimes we don’t know how much we actually affect other people. We are totally unaware as we walk around all day living our lives and going about our own business. We are lights that shine. Sometimes we shine so brightly we light up others with our glow.

On my way to work one fall, I stopped at a traffic light at a busy intersection downtown, where an elderly man crossed the street. I stared at the feeble, gray-haired man, a crutch under each arm supporting his fragile frame.

But what struck me as I watched him slowly shuffle across the street was his smile. He was wearing my grandfather’s smile. My grandfather has been gone a long time, decades even, but this elderly man could have been his brother. A huge grin broke out on my face as I watched him make his way across the street.

A few days later, I saw him again. Then I started to look for him. This elderly man, wearing my grandpa’s smile. For a few months, I was blessed to encounter him, shuffling along the sidewalk, making his painstakingly slow path up Wyndham Street. And every time I did, he brightened my day.

This elderly man, wearing my grandpa’s smile, never knew I existed. He never knew I watched him from my car. He never knew how much he brightened my day.

A few months later, when I stumbled upon his death notice in the paper, I shed a few tears for this elderly man wearing my grandpa’s smile that I never got to meet. The words written on his notice read, “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16 NRSV). Did this gentleman know the influence he had on others? Did he know that his bright smile brightened others?

We are lights. As we go about our lives, we cast a glow on all the people whose paths we cross; whether they are family and friends we see regularly, or complete strangers we encounter at the grocery store. Our lights can be dim, or they can be bright. But we do shine. And for some people, we may be the only light they see.

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“Let your light shine so brightly that others can see their way out of the dark.”

- Katrina Mayer