From Forward Day by Day
Matthew 5:14-15 A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket.
Most weeks, in our day school chapel, I sing “This little light of mine” with our preschool students. Their absolute favorite verse asks, “Hide it under a bushel?” as we mime a bushel with one cupped hand slowly descending over the pointer-finger candle of the other hand. Then at the last minute we shout, “NO! I’m gonna let it shine!” I watch their joy as they rip the bushel back just before they smother their symbolic light.
In my heart, I silently hope that when forces tempt them to cover the light that God has uniquely given each of them, in their hearts they will shout, “NO!” and let it shine, let it shine, let it shine. Perhaps the best way to teach our children to let their light shine is to let our own lights shine. By being the authentic creatures God has made us to be, we model what it means to let our light shine with Christ’s light. By saying “no” to the bushel baskets that hide who we are, we pave the way for our children to shine their little lights and make the world a brighter place.
