Reflect the Light!
A wonderful story encouraging us to reflect the Savior’s light in our daily lives.
On a certain occasion, a student asked a Greek history scholar and philosopher named Alexander Papaderos, “What is the meaning of life?” After a moment of contemplation, Dr. Papaderos took his wallet out of his hip pocket. He fished into the leather billfold and brought out a very small round mirror about the size of a quarter. He then said, “When I was a small child during the war, we were very poor and we live in a remote village. One day I found on the road the broken pieces of a mirror. A German motorcycle had been wrecked in that place. I tried to find all the pieces and put them together, but i was not possible, so I kept only the largest piece. It is the piece I hold in my hand. By carefully scratching the edges with a smooth stone I was able to make the mirror fragment round. I began to play with it as a toy and I became fascinated by the fact that I could reflect light into dark places where the sun would never shine, such as deep holes and crevices and dark closets. It became a game for me to get light into the most inaccessible places I could find. I kept the little mirror, and as I grew up, I would take it out during idle moments and continue to challenge of my boyhood game. As I became a man, I grew to understand that this was not just a child’s game but a metaphor for what I might do with my life. I came to understand that I was not ‘the’ light or ‘the source’ of light, but I did come to understand that light, in the form of truth, understanding, and knowledge, is always present, and it could be made to shine in dark places if I reflected it there. I came to realize that I was a fragment of a mirror whose whole design and shape I did not know. Nevertheless, with what I have I can reflect light into the dark places o this world, into the black places in the heart of men and change some things in some people. Perhaps others may see and do likewise. This is what I am about. This is my constance endeavor. This the meaning of MY life.”
He then took out his small mirror and holding it very carefully, caught the bright rays of daylight streaming through the window and reflected them onto the faces and hands of the students that were in his classroom that day. His example provides a lesson of life we can all benefit from.
Adapted from the book “It Was on Fire When I Laid Down on it”, by Robert Fulghum.
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