Glimmer

My son has told on several occasions, and is very proud of himself, that he has given up social media completely. My daughter-in-law is determined not to post anything but she regularly looks to see what her friends have posted. My wife has a similar love/hate relationship with social media where, from time to time, she abstains from participating for a while. All of them point out the negatives of social media - negativity, posts that can offend others, misinformation, etc.

I am the opposite. I refuse to give up on social media because of the positives - connecting and reconnecting with old friends and acquaintances. Sharing and reviewing information to evaluate the bias and impact of the information. Sharing my humor, such as it is, and amusing myself at what others find humorous. And, one of the most important reasons, is sharing and receiving positive things. The best example is something I saw a friend post that I liked today (I’m a firm believer on liking a post before I share it myself). 

Before I tell you what I saw, I want to share some observations.

I’m old and conservative enough that I shake my head at most of this woke stuff. I don’t think it is appropriate under any circumstances for grade school children to be exposed to sexual education from the school and they are far too young to consider it in books and so on. I don’t agree that any children should be given hormone treatment or surgical interventions because they don’t feel like the gender they were born with. And one of the things that irritates me the most is discussion of people being triggered by this or that. Don’t get me wrong, a person who says something to intentionally irritate or hurt another person is wrong, just wrong. However, saying something without that intent is not a capital offense as some people paint it as deserving. This includes getting rid of terms like master bedroom, Mother’s Day and illegal alien.

Today, on social media, the post started with expressing a displeasure to the concept of looking for triggering things and suggesting an alternate activity of looking for “glimmer” things. “Glimmer things,” as the post described, are visuals or situations that make you smile or give you joy. Since I have recommended looking for the positive side of things for years, I would like to latch onto this finding glimmer things to you.

A couple of glimmer things I’ve seen in the last hour or so is a happy puppy rolling around in the grass, my contented cat napping in her cat bed, and me looking forward to my wife coming home from her errands this afternoon.  A son and daughter-in-law and a young grand daughter that I adore, a refrigerator full of good food, a house that is heated or cooled as necessary, wonderful friends, and a great church family are also huge glimmers.  In fact, there are so many of them it would be hard for me to list them all.

“By the God of your father who will help you, by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that crouches beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb. The blessings of your father are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents, up to the bounties of the everlasting hills. May they be on the head of Joseph, and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers.” - Genesis 49:25-26

“Blessed are the people to whom such blessings fall! Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord!” - Psalm 144:15

“The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.” - Numbers 6:24-26

You might guess from the passages that I’m going to substitute “glimmers” with “blessings.”  You’d be right. The more you look for God’s blessings, the more you’ll find and the more joyous you’ll be.

But the biggest glimmer is that God chose me to be part of his elect. He sent his son to take away my sin. That is a glimmer that I’ll always put high on my lists of blessings.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”- John 3:16-21