After Dad died, my mom asked us to help her plant a sapling of a maple tree she had seen, but she didn’t know its particular name. So, we just went to the nursery. “After all,” I naively thought, “isn’t one maple pretty much like the others?” We later discovered that the tree she wanted was an October Glory maple. It does look like any other green maple the rest of the year. But in the fall, it is spectacular! What a difference there was in the name!


The way we live our lives may look pretty similar to our neighbors or co-workers when life is manageable. But when things are hard and we choose to die to our selfish ambition or our anxious controlling, when we love our enemies – then we stand out and shine like Christ, to God’s glory. The only way we can do that is to be a sapling of the One who took the form of a bondservant and humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death. We need the rays of the Son – the light of Jesus – to display us in our full glory, making us lights in the world. You’re going to shine for someone; let it be for Jesus!