At the start of Holy Week, Greg Dils calls on us all to be the light of the world and reflects on how opportunities to serve as a witness to God's love are all around us.
She sat alone in the hotel lounge, where our Global Village team had just arrived after a week of helping build a Habitat for Humanity home in Costa Rica. As we stumbled through some very poor attempts to place our orders in Spanish, she noticed our trouble and helped translate for us. We soon invited her to join our team for dinner. She listened intently as we all talked about the amazing week we experienced, the work we completed and the connection we made with the partner family.
Near the end of the meal, she told us how she felt that God must have led us to be there with her that evening. She had distanced herself from God over the past few years and had just gone through a bad breakup with a longtime boyfriend. That night she had been feeling very depressed before she met us. However, the positive attitude and caring spirit that our team had shown during the meal was to her a witness of God’s love and a sign of hope and life, even in her time of sorrow. She decided that she was ready to reconnect with God right away. One of our team members gave her a Spanish Bible bought earlier in the week.
Jesus instructs in Matthew 5:14-16 that we are to be the light of the world and to let our light shine before others in order to glorify God. Opportunities to serve as witnesses to God’s love are all around us. In our team’s case, this special moment was completely unplanned and was a result of just talking and sharing our experiences. Our team went into the week thinking that the purpose of our trip would be to build decent, affordable housing with a family in Costa Rica. We never guessed that God had an extra purpose for us: to offer hope to a young lady in a time of emotional crisis.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the opportunity to be a light to others in this world. Help us to keep our eyes open for situations where we can serve as witnesses of Your great love. May our work bring glory to Your name. Amen.
Click here to download all the reflections and prayers from the Habitat world during the 40 days of Lent
