Unconscious Glory

Mrs. Lisa makes me feel loved. 

Each day when I go to pick up my lunch from the  school cafeteria, our lunch lady, Mrs. Lisa, has my salad ready to go— complete with fork, knife, and a few napkins, neatly placed on top of my salad. She doesn’t have to do that. She could just put my salad on the fridge shelf and I could grab my own fork, knife, and napkins from the bins on the counter. But every day, she takes the extra minute to neatly arrange all I will need for lunch and place it on the shelf… and it’s just a simple, little, random thing that comforts me and makes me feel loved. 

Mrs. Lisa doesn’t do that because she’s trying to make me feel loved. She does it because that’s who she is. Unless I told Mrs. Lisa, she would have no idea of the positive impact she makes on my day, doing something that is so unconsciously natural for her to do. And it’s little things like that when I see Jesus the most— I see Him shining through someone because that’s who they are, not necessarily because that’s who they are trying so very hard to be. 

Strangely, as we mature in the Lord, our reflection of Him seems to become more and more unconscious. Often times, I’ve found the greatest impact I’ve had in someone’s life wasn’t because I was trying to, but simply because of some unconscious thing I did that came naturally to me—Christ poured Himself into a vessel, and the vessel poured Him out. So, it isn’t the vessel that is seen, but what has been poured into it, because it isn’t the vessel that people need, but what’s inside. 

Oh Lord, help us to stay focused upon relationship with You, so that we may be filled with the oil of Yourself as You help us to be true vessels of Who You are.  

(2 Cor 4:6,7) For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Now we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this surpassingly great power is from God and not from us.

(Ex 34:29-33) When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD…and they were afraid to come near him…[so Moses] put a veil over his face.

(2 Cor 3:18) And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into His image with intensifying glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.