Many of you know I spent my teen years on a New York beach. That was back in the late Sixties and early Seventies. We shunned the new product called “sunscreen.” No, we wanted dark tans or at least, that golden glow enhanced by baby oil or carrot oil with sweet scents of orange blossoms. If the label on a bottle of tanning lotion advertised any number greater than SPF 4, we didn’t want it.

Bronzed skin proclaimed our excellent fitness, our outdoorsy nature, and our ability to relish the good life just like Madison Avenue taught us. And besides, all that vitamin D was truly good for us, right?

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A great tan was my summer quest as if it were the holy grail. If I wasn’t babysitting, I was at the beach, chatting with my friends, lying on my back on a towel, then rolling to my stomach after a half hour, than back again. I might as well have been a marshmallow toasting over the campfire.

My grandmother warned me. “You’ll get wrinkles before you’re fifty. You’ll get age spots.”

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Grandma had a few wrinkles. Age spots, too. Granted, she was an old lady in her seventies.

But Grandma was right. If I hadn’t moved to the Midwest, sun damage could have been far greater. Without the sand and the ocean breeze, sunbathing lost its appeal. Ohio was just plain HOT! So was Indiana. Add running after three little boys during my twenties and thirties, who had time to lie out in the sun?

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Many Christians have learned the secret to gaining it. This glow is much healthier than that false, athletic appearance people search for. Instead of “taking in the rays,” we soak in God’s Word. We can relax wherever we are. No beach necessary. We exchange listening to the latest pop music on a boombox for the Holy Spirit’s voice. We chat with our best Friend, Jesus. Every moment spent under the Light of Christ brings a golden glow to our souls.

Psalm 34:5 is a real experience. We look to Jesus, and we are radiant. We glow with joy! The longer we bathe in His Presence, the deeper the glow, our faces upturned to absorb Christ’s radiance. We reflect His Light.

A perfect example in my own life occurred when I visited my old hometown after a twenty-year absence. I was there to visit a a critically ill relative, the only one left in Westhampton. With my parents retired to North Carolina, my mom’s old friend invited me to stay in her home. Eleanor* was a lady who had no trouble speaking her mind (as did my mother—no wonder they’d been great friends!), and she’d watched me and my brothers growing up in those teen years. She knew all about the hot water we used to get into. Along with her own sons, I might add.

Eleanor was a lifelong atheist. She and my dad used to exult in debates, much to her husband’s discomfort and my mother’s offended sensibilities. In Mom’s opinion, politics and religion should be banned from all social gatherings.

credit to Steve Wickham

One evening after returning from the hospital, I enjoyed an extended conversation with Eleanor. I shared several stories about my life on the “frontier” in Indiana. Yes, many residents of Long Island feel Philadelphia is the border between civilization and the wilderness! Especially those of her generation.

Upon finishing some episode about my family, she lifted her chin and pondered my face. “You’re very different from the girl of years ago. You have…a serene glow about you.”

“That’s Jesus,” I said. “I could never be so calm in this crisis without Him.”

The words were out of my mouth before I even considered the repercussions of speaking them to an atheist who had been gracious enough to open her home to me, a near-stranger. I waited for the old gleam in her eyes indicating the verbal battle about to begin. Like father, like daughter.

But she remained thoughtful. “I wish I could know such tranquility.”

“You can,” I assured her.

For a moment I thought I saw a twinkle of argument, but she chose to retreat. She shook her head. “No, I don’t think so.”

Conversation was done. Eleanor said something about preparing for bed. The Holy Spirit stopped me from speaking further. Let her chew on it a while. Weeks later, I wrote her a letter, sharing a little more of my testimony and inviting her to contact me with any questions. She never did.

Had I failed? Absolutely not! I had spoken of my love for Jesus, His love for me. I had glowed. And she saw it! That is all Jesus asks of us.

Forget the “healthy, tanned-body-glow” message form the glut of television ads. Let’s go for that golden glow radiating the love of Christ.

People notice!

*Name changed to protect the family’s privacy.

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