RADIANCE!

From Susan:

"They looked unto Him and were radiant." (Psalm 34:5)

34:5....3,4,5.....just like that--

So easy to remember.  

So easy to forget. 

I love to look up words that seem foundational to life....like this one, radiant.

So I chose the noun form, radiance.

And here is what I learned from google this week:  Radiance is a construct in physics which is measurable.  

It can be defined as {get THIS!} "total reflection."   

It is useful because it indicates how much of the power emitted from a reflecting surface, like a mirror, will be received by an optical system, i.e. our eyes, looking at the surface from some angle.

This has such clear relevance for us as believers and parents and spouses and friends and workers and neighbors! Given that we know from Hebrews 1:3 that Jesus is the "radiance of God's glory, the exact representation of His nature," we realize that Jesus is God's mirror, perfectly reflecting our Father in heaven to His children on earth!  

And we have radiance when the power emitted from Jesus is received by us, as we "look unto Him," as the Psalmist says.  We, like Peter, keep our eyes above the waves. And we reflect Him, whether we intend to or not!

But what I liked most of all was this: under ideal  circumstances, output radiance = input radiance.

This means for us that, under ideal circumstances,

the love we reflect to others = the Love we receive from above.

So I have begun to pray a new prayer. 

May our output radiance equal our input radiance. 

This concept is SOOOO easy to illustrate with your kids.  Just get a flood light or lamp and shine it away from yourself and towards a handheld mirror that is pointed towards one of your kids; as the light shines in the mirror and reflects directly and momentarily into their eyes, they see what the idea of total reflection means. We then explain, "Hey guys, this is what we want to ask Jesus to do for  us--to make our reflection of Him to others just as bright as this light is to us!"

So today and each day Lord, whisper to us to look unto You and be radiant!