“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:  (10) Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.”  (1 Peter 2:9-10)

As a boy, I fancied myself as an aspiring botanist. Of course, I did not actually call myself a botanist; I did not even know what the word meant at the time. However, I was awed by the complex design and beauty of plants. Although I did not understand much about plants at the time; I once decided to try my hand at cultivating some flowers. I selected for my experimental gardening several daisies which I dug up from a neighbor’s yard and placed into pots that I could relocate at leisure. (I realize now that digging up the neighbor’s flowers was wrong.)

One of the first things I learned about daisies is that they need sunlight in order to live. I had moved the potted plants to the comfort of the tool shed, far away from the hot sun. I discovered the next day that my once healthy and beautiful daisies were looking a bit withered and droopy. My solution was to give them more water. The day following showed even more distress as each daisy was leaning to one side in a severe droop.

Thinking the plants had suffered their demise, I placed all the pots outside in the morning sun. I planned to dispose of my seemingly dead daisies. For the time being, I left the plants and went back inside the house. Returning an hour later, I was surprised to find the daisies all standing proudly in the morning sun! With their faces (blossoms) now turned upward, basking in the radiant glory of the sunlight, it was evident that the daisies were not dead but had been lazily drooping in the shaded tool shed.

Looking back, I am able to glean some important lessons from this experience that I can apply in my Christian walk. In a sense, we are a lot like those flowers. “For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth and the flower thereof falleth away” (1 Peter 1:24). We sometimes feel rundown, trodden, or tired. The proximity of sin overshadows us; and we are overcome, or become lazy daisies.

In our text verse, the Apostle Peter says that God has called us “out of darkness into his marvellous light.” Jesus Christ is that Light, and all who look to Him have been given Eternal Life. As “the planting of the Lord”  (Isa. 61:3), we are to find spiritual nourishment basking in the Glory of His Light. Only in His Light is Life (Jn. 8:12), and walking in His Light we experience growth and health in spiritual things.

Before we came to know Christ, we lived in the darkness of sin and death, separated from the Light of Life. However, because of God’s great Love for us, He made a way for us to escape that spiritual darkness. Through the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, God invites us to come into the Light of His Presence. We are now able to rejoice in His Radiance, where we are nourished from the very Source of Life.

There is an old, favored hymn that expresses this thought: “Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee, God of Glory, Lord of Love; Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee, Opening to the Sun above.”

Salvation from sin means that we have been moved from the darkness of spiritual death into the “marvellous light” of our Lord Jesus Christ. Child of Grace, never forget that your Life is in Christ. Look to His Light, and don’t be like a lazy daisy.