Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. [Genesis 1:3 (NCV)]

You are the light that gives light to the world. A city that is built on a hill cannot be hidden. And people don’t hide a light under a bowl. They put it on a lampstand so the light shines for all the people in the house. In the same way, you should be a light for other people. Live so that they will see the good things you do and will praise your Father in heaven. [Matthew 5:14-16 (NCV)]

We are told to let our lights shine. What do you suppose would happen if we all shone our lights together? As I took photographs during our Christmas Eve service in the park, I saw what happened when 3,700 people lit small candles and held them high. While each individual candle gave off only a little light, the thousands of candles together illuminated the entire park.

Saturday, I thought of how bright our lights can be when joined together as I read about a food packing event sponsored by Meals of Hope. In a matter of two hours, half a million fortified macaroni and cheese dinners were packed by 2,500 volunteers from fifty-two different organizations.

Acting individually, I suppose each of Wednesday’s 2,500 volunteers could have purchased a 5-pack of mac ‘n cheese at Walmart for $4.50. That, however, would have yielded only 12,500 meals. Each volunteer would have had to purchase forty 5-packs to get 500,000 meals. Let’s face it: few people are likely to donate $180 worth of Kraft® dinners to their local food pantry on the same day. Moreover, those store-bought dinners aren’t as large or as heavily fortified as those provided by Meals of Hope.

I’ll do the math for you. Meals of Hope packed 500,000 dinners, each weighing 12.5 ounces, for a total of 6,250,000 ounces of mac ‘n cheese. The entire event (hall rental, food, packaging, plastic gloves, fork trucks, etc.) cost $125,000 or less than 2 cents per ounce. Those 5-packs of mac ‘n cheese at Walmart cost 12 cents per ounce. If done individually, $750,000 would need to be spent to provide the same amount of food that Meals of Hope did by using group-power. These meals will now be distributed by various accredited food bank partners throughout Southwest Florida.

As Christians, we must keep our individual lights shining bright. When we join forces, however, as we did at the park Christmas Eve and as 2,500 people did last week when packing meals, we can become lighthouses and shine brighter than we ever could imagine. When we unite, when we light our candles as one, we can be a mighty power and change lives. Indeed, the whole can be far greater than the sum of its parts!

We are told to let our light shine, and if it does, we won’t need to tell anybody it does. Lighthouses don’t fire cannons to call attention to their shining—they just shine. [D.L. Moody]

Arise, Jerusalem! Let your light shine for all to see. For the glory of the Lord rises to shine on you. Darkness as black as night covers all the nations of the earth, but the glory of the Lord rises and appears over you. All nations will come to your light; mighty kings will come to see your radiance. [Isaiah 60:1-3 (NLT)]