Driving along an Arkansas road early Sunday morning, I watched as the sun dawned its color in a cloudless sky.

We passed trees standing as sentinels around fields serving breakfast to herds of cows. Here, fall had passed, and winter had fully come. The bare trees, having lost the last of their autumn colors, stretched upward to the sky as they welcomed the dawn.

Through their branches, I viewed the colors of the dawning morning. The trees were diminished by the season, stripped of their life-giving leaves, but their very starkness allowed the beauty of the new day to shine through.

I thought of the verse in John 3:30 –

“I must decrease, but He must increase.”

These were the words spoken by John the Baptist as Jesus began His ministry on Earth. John’s ministry was complete. He had announced the Messiah and prepared the way for Him to be known. Now, it was time for Jesus to shine.

The same is true in my life. The less of me that shouts for attention, the more that Jesus can shine through. My demands for my rights and to be noticed must decrease, but His will and His way must increase in my life.

I want to be like those trees with the dawn shining through. I want my life to showcase God’s glory instead of my own.

Like John, “I must decrease, but He must increase.”

II Corinthians 4:6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Jesus, increase your presence and your influence in my life. Shine through so the world sees You most of all.

Photo – Shining Through, Beth Mims