Every summer here I delight in the day that the fireflies return. I love watching their blinking lights filling the meadow behind my home. Sometimes I see hundreds of them flashing their lights on and off frantically searching for love in the few short weeks that they reproduce and lay the eggs that will become the next generation of fireflies. I have even had a few fly inside my house when I open my door at night and I’ve had to carefully capture the slow moving lightening bugs and release them back outside again.

This year, however, we have had more than a few colder nights that hampered their activities. It saddened me a little to see only a dozen or so of them flying around instead of the hundreds I see most nights. The other night it was particularly cold for a summer evening. The breeze held a chill that I felt in my bones when the wind blew. The night sky was overcast and dark. The air was damp from the rains we’d had all day. I looked around as I walked my dogs but couldn’t see any fireflies at all. Just as I was about to go in, though, I spotted him. It was a single firefly still bravely blinking his light in spite of the rain, in spite of the darkness, in spite of the cold, and in spite of the loneliness. I smiled as I saw him, took his lesson to heart, and went back inside with a little light kindling in my own soul.

I vowed as well to follow that single firefly’s example and keep shining my own light no matter how dark this world may seem at times. I remembered that we all reside within the heart of God. His Light and His Love fill us. And it is our greatest joy to share that Love and shine that Light as brightly as we can. Maybe that is why God gave us beautiful fireflies in the first place: to remind us of the light deep within us all and to show us that we can shine that light no matter how cold, dark, or lonely this world gets. Shine bright then. Live well. And Love always.