Day 25 of Illumination: The measure for enlightenment is Jesus Christ.

“till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ,”Ephesians‬ ‭4‬:‭13‬-‭15‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

The Mars orbiter, designed to orbit Mars as the first interplanetary weather satellite, was lost in 1999. The $125 million probe is thought to have been destroyed by coming too close to Mars as it came into orbit. An investigation revealed that the failure happened because the Nasa team used metric units while a contractor used imperial.

Germany measures sea level in relation to the North Sea, while Switzerland uses the Mediterranean Sea as the point of reference. This caused a problem in Laufenburg, a town straddling Germany and Switzerland. In 2003, as two halves of a new bridge grew closer to each other, it became evident that, rather than being at the same height "above sea level," one side was 54cm higher than the other. Now, the contractors knew that there was a 27cm difference between the two reference points of sea level, but somehow it was doubled, rather than corrected. The German side had to be lowered before the bridge could be completed.

The point of reference, or the standard of measure, matters.

You need only peruse old yearbooks to see how the measure for beauty or fashion has changed. We all know that the “mullet” should probably be ranked as a crime, yet it was (is?) sported by many. The mullet is but one example of a measure that was later regretted. And please, don’t get me started on the wearing of pants below the buttocks; what ever measure led to that, needs to be put in a vault somewhere for which there is no key.

Before the communication explosion brought the world “closer” together, different countries had very different measures of what was found to be beautiful, desirable, or even decent. Even after the communication revolution there are still differences among cultures, countries, ethnicities, etc. as to what is beautiful, handsome, prosperous, and so forth.

As we have been taking our journey into “25 Days of Illumination,” we have time and again been reminded that what we are seeking is God‘s way of being and doing; we seek to know what He wants us to know so we can be what He wants us to be. Make no mistake, enlightenment or illumination has many meanings, and as such, has many standards.

In our opening scripture we see that our measure for perfection is Jesus Christ. As such, all the wisdom and knowledge we need is found in Him; it is to His full measure we seek to be conformed.

“that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

‭‭Colossians‬ ‭2‬:‭2‬-‭3‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

There is no greater measure than the Son of God and Son of Man: Jesus Christ. As we look to Him, as we yield to His leading by obeying His commands, we will find that He is ushering us into full sonship. And, my dearly beloved, there is nothing greater to be desired.

We light a twenty-fifth candle of illumination today by knowing this:

The measure for enlightenment is Jesus Christ.

#25daysofillumination