Most scanning technology (e.g. radar, sonar) uses in some form or fashion the properties of echoes, either active [full or partial] or missing, to define what it touches. In addition, most of what we see that has color (black being the absence) is a reflection, an echo of light off the object, the exception being the light source itself.
The defining effect of echoes is not limited to light, it also works in a similar way in the realm of ideas and truth. In Christian thought, you could say that we each reflect the light of God that illuminates every one of us (John 1:9). We take that light that has been given to us, Gods revealed truth (on the spectrum from what creation shows – Romans 1:19-20 – to the Faith once delivered – Jude 3) and reflect it off our lives by what we say and what we do. Out of the abundance of our heart the mouth speaks and actions proceed, bearing the fruit of our root.
This light of God, like all reflected light, is colored, to a greater or lessor degree, by the object it bounces off of. The question we have to ask ourselves, especially the Christians among us, is how faithfully do we reflect (echo) that source versus how much do we color it, either intentionally or unwittingly (but always revealingly)?
Jesus told his disciples that since only God sees the heart, the only way they could judge people was by their fruit, and one way to do that is to ascertain how accurately they reflect the source that they claim guides their lives, especially over time. The light of Christ illuminates the contents of our lives as it bounces off our souls and our actions, illuminating the thoughts and intentions of our hearts, with increasing detail over time.
It happened to the Pharisees as they encountered Jesus and it happens to us also. We reveal ourselves in the echoes, the reflections we send abroad. What are you saying to that great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1) who surround your every action, and to those who see you every day at work, at home, at Church, at play? Have you thought about that? Have you tested your fruit, the echoes of God in your life? Is it good fruit, edible and sustaining? Do you need to dig around your roots; do you need to ask the gardener for more time, for more help?
Whatever your fruit now, I pray that God will from this point forward richly bless the reflections of your life and that you may now begin to mirror with the least distortion possible the love and truth of Jesus Christ in all that you say and do. Amen.
Not only are we called to bear fruit but God is symbolized as the gardener who prunes us in order to help us bear the right kind of fruit (John 15). That isn’t always what we would chose but it is healthy.
Good thoughts.