Recently I was with a small group of mostly new friends who were sharing personal experiences. One young lady in the group had just returned from Israel and was talking about how Middle Eastern culture provided such a fresh perspective of the Scriptures for her.She shared a conversation she had with someone in Israel who explained the ancient process of making olive oil. Apparently it was a long and involved process... which including the crushing of the olives among other things.
The finished product was not only used for cooking, but for lamps that provided light.
The thoughts flooded my mind and have been with me since that conversation. When Jesus encourages us to be "the light of the world"... in our Western culture we think of flipping a switch which provides immediate illumination, but for someone in the ancient Middle East they had a completely different understanding of what it took to provide light.
Is it possible that our "light" is most effective following times in our lives when we feel like we are being "crushed"?
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