“At this point everyone in the high council stared at Stephen, because his face became as bright as an angel’s.” Acts 6:15
Electric light is one of the all-time greatest inventions, but who does the credit actually go to; Benjamin Franklin or Thomas Edison? Certainly, Thomas Edison could not have invented the light bulb had it not been for Ben Franklin’s discovery of the fact that electrical power could be transferred through current.
Regardless of who should get the credit, one thing is for sure, light has been a game changer. Can you imagine what your life would be like without the modern-day convenience of electric light? One regular-sized household light bulb can be seen from a great distance in the darkness.
Similarly, Stephen found himself surrounded by darkness, yet in that perilous moment, when death was immanent, he allowed the Light of the Holy Spirit to shine through him. Stephen was simply just too full of the Holy Spirit at that moment for anything else to happen. He had placed his faith, hope, and trust in His risen Savior, Jesus Christ, and in a moment where he should have been praised for doing something good, he was being lied about and misrepresented, which stirred up the crowd with hatred against him.
Yet in all of this, Stephen held his head up high and allowed his accusers to see God’s light through him. There was one young man, Saul, who would never forget that day. Saul stood there and held the coats for the accusers as they hurled accusations and stones at Stephen. Saul would later become the Apostle Paul, after his personal encounter with Jesus and the Holy Spirit. No matter where his future travels would take him and how greatly God would use him, Paul would never be able to forget the Light he saw through Stephen that day.
I love it when life goes great, but it’s in those moments when things aren’t going so well, and others are watching, that we really want His Light to shine. For it’s in those moments of darkness that His Light shines the brightest.