From Bug Magnet to Light Magnet: Letting Christ’s Light Draw Others In

By Jessica Brodie

Have you ever been outside trying to have a serious conversation with someone while a gnat buzzes persistently around your face? You try to wave it off or ignore it, but its resolve is distracting!

That’s me almost every time I step outside during summer. Whether it’s because of my perfume or my blood type, I don’t know, but bugs seem to love me like a moth loves a flame. Mosquitoes, spiders, flies, gnats… you name it, they flock to me. My husband has dubbed me the “bug magnet.” It would be funny but for the welts on my skin. You can imagine how grateful I am that fall is finally starting to settle over my state and the bugs disappear.

Still, the way they flock to me reminds me of something deeper—something far more important.

It reminds me of the light of Christ, and how its glorious promise and liberation cannot help but beckon us near.

I remember times when I’ve been drawn to someone—not romantically, and not because of any earthly, tangible reward—because there is that “special something” about them. That glow, that balm of peace and true joy that is the Holy Spirit within them, draws me close and makes me think I, too, can experience that … perhaps simply from being near them. Like a gnat or a mosquito, I hover close, attracted to the light they exude. I remember a woman I knew who, every time I had an encounter with her, made me think, “She’s filled with the light of Christ.” I left better than I was, for the light of the Spirit in me recognized the light of the Spirit in her.

We, too, are like that woman. We who have the light of Christ within us, the power of the Holy Spirit thrumming through our veins, have the undeniable ability to draw others powerfully and magnetically to that pure and perfect light.

It’s not a light of our own making—it’s the light of God’s truth and wisdom and grace and mercy and glorious love that shines within us. It’s the light of the Holy Spirit.

And when we allow ourselves to be instruments of the Lord, conduits of God’s light, it cannot help but shine brightly. That light draws another person into it. It attracts, it alerts, it calls out for all to hear, “Come and join! Come to the table! Come into this warm, perfect ray of sunshine, for you, too, can be born again.”

It requires no words, no cultural context. It is a universal language we cannot help but heed.

Jesus says in Matthew 5:15 that no one lights a lamp and then puts it underneath the table or a basket, but instead sets it out for all to see.

It’s the same with us. That lamp is inside us. We cannot hide it. We need to let it shine unfettered to draw others … just as we were drawn.

The beautiful thing about this is we can shine God’s light anywhere—in a far-off land where we don’t speak the language. In our workplace or our schools or our neighborhood, while walking among unbelievers (or as I like to consider them, not-yet-believers).

The light of Christ, no matter where it shines, has the same desired outcome—it draws those who desire the light into God’s loving embrace.

I’ll admit I’m not sorry to see the bugs go this time of year. Being a bug magnet is no fun. But being a light magnet? That’s something I pray I never outgrow. Because when people are drawn to the light of Christ in us, they don’t leave with welts. They leave with hope, with healing, with a glimpse of the One who made them and loves them beyond measure.

So consider today: How can you shine God’s light so all can see? What are ways you can live out your faith openly, boldly, publicly?

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