Let your light shine

Last week my fiance and I vacationed in Door County, Wisconsin—a place we both really enjoy. One of the trip's highlights was a lighthouse tour. Lighthouses are special to me because my paternal grandfather was born in one off the coast of Norway before his parents came to America. This tour was fascinating to John as well. We both learned so much.

We opted to climb the 97 steep and narrow circular steps inside the lighthouse tower so we could see the light itself. To our surprise, the light that guides sailors in Lake Michigan is a tiny one, not much different in size than a nightlight! However, the system off of which that tiny light reflects is amazing. A huge bee-hive style set of prisms surrounds that tiny light and reflects it out 18 miles into the water. That circular group of prisms is extremely heavy and huge. But how well it has protected ships and their crews for the 146 years it's been in operation!

The whole setup made me think of our lights and how we let them shine. Our inner light can sometimes seem pretty tiny, can't it? But still, it reflects off those whose lives we touch and who touch our lives—and then think of the reach it has. Our job is simply to let that light shine, whether it seems full-strength or puny on any given day, knowing that the love and positive energy we put out will be reflected by those around us and radiate out much further than we can imagine.