A legacy of a friend has just pop-up in my wandering mind due to the question raised by my daughter from her science assignment. “Pa…where does the moon’s light comes from?” Haa!? Moonlight?!? Upon uttering the word, my thoughts just automatically flew back to that high school incident that has left a beautiful insight and somehow, created in me …a smile.
Come and walk with me in my memory lane, and engage ourselves with story telling, we might stumble into something precious…..
I have this classmate who usually share a verse, experience or an illustration of life pointing towards the adventure and benefits of straight and honest living. She’s not that expressive in class but she speaks loud in her silence and glance. Quite a good gal eh!?, I don’t know how good because I rarely interact with her outside the class. She is quite a low profile and out-spoken in most of the areas I consider very beneficial and of importance during those days. And me? I was so engrossed with being famous and belonging to the “in-thing”. I was so full of myself. You know! High school times!! But this classmate is gifted with so many memory verses and illustrations to share whenever chance arises. And since she was sitting near to me, I often find myself hearing those stories, verses and illustrations of her, quite a lot. I don’t know where it came from and I didn’t bother to. I was just hearing those to kill time during a no-teacher and vacant hour, but somehow and for some reason that I’m not aware of…yet, it provides calmness and strikes quite an interesting conviction within me. But I never admitted it to anyone and I just shrugged it off afterwards, I was just too busy with my big self to listen and too young to consider those stories seriously. Yeah! I’m hearing those, but not listening, until the….surprise exam…….(getting longer huh?). But fortunately, it was not a surprise for me not because I was studious but because I was tipped-off beforehand by a friend from another section where our substitute teacher also teaches. And I kept it to myself to have an edge, which will aid me to grab the scholarship honors, come graduation day. I sacrificed the recess time (which by the way is my favorite subject..Hehehe) by getting those lectures into my head. And so during the exam time (after my favorite subject) they were all surprise but not the mischievous me. As I looked into my “classmate with great stories”, I saw her quite bothered by the sudden test too, yet very busy filling up her papers. Ah! She had a tip too, I thought. And then almost everybody I noticed, were perspiring quite a lot and others (even those running for top honors) were applying their cheating skill to the fullest. Me? I am enjoying the sight of their perspirations and my edge, with a mischievous smile. An hour later, I heard the famous line, which everybody doesn’t want to hear…”Finish or not finish, pass your papers”. I boldly took the liberty to stand first and collect their papers. (What a show off!) And as I reached for my soft spoken classmate with “stories”, who by the way is also running for scholarship honors, I was shocked to read her papers. It was full of good “letterings” and very well designed, that says: IT IS BETTER TO GET ZERO RATHER THAN TO CHEAT! Whew! I was greatly moved and started to perspire just right that moment. Here she is, running for scholarship honors and recognition opted to be ZERO when she can easily take a peek on her notes and other papers as what most were busy doing while the teacher’s out.
After that incident, I stopped hearing her inspirational stories anymore......I started listening with an open heart and mind.
And one of those stories was about the “Moonlight”, which serves as a light during the night, where darkness somehow evades half of the earth temporarily. Its light was not her own, only borrowed from the Sun and being reflected to earth to stopped the darkness from his evasion. If the moon will not yield to the Sun for the light, darkness will completely take over…. and all will be lost.
It’s like true Christians, she said, they possess lights, given to them. They must not hide it nor put it off, they should stand up and let it shine to the people caught in darkness, in whatever situation. Their purpose for living is to pass that light from the Son to the people. And they will continue to shine brightly only if they continue to yield themselves to the Son. For without the Son, they are nothing...
Well, she definitely shown her light to me, and I was blinded. Now I see....
For sure I can effectively answer my daughter’s assignment now.
Have a blessed day!
Verse-Meal:
Matthew 5:16
…let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.