“You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. Let your light shine so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven.”

When I was growing up, I always found it curious that Morton Salt’s logo was a girl with an umbrella standing in the rain and the theme was, “When it rains it pours”. I never quite understood it as the idiom typically references when one bad thing happens and then another comes, that with the trouble piling up we say, “When it rains it pours”.  What did this have to do with salt? Also, doesn’t salt dissolve and become lumpy and clogs a shaker when it gets wet? So, I never got it. I since learned that in the early 1900’s that having formulated salt that didn’t clump or solidify was a novel thing and Morton was trying to tell us that their salt flowed freely, and I suspect too freely some times against expectations and people ended up using a lot more salt than they expected.  And so, the very successful advertising campaign got twisted to what we use today, “When it rains, it pours” and wow, can it sometimes feel that way.

When Jesus told us that we are the salt of the world, those who were listening at that time would not have thought about salt being able to flow freely. That is a new definition for us and one to consider in our time. While we are to be the salt of the earth to be a part of stopping the decay that is all around us, and through our examples we also add positive flavor to the world around us, we can now think about how we are to be sure and freely flow our faith to others. We should not let our faith get clogged in the shaker of life. Maybe this is what God is saying to us today? He’s trying to shake us up to get us flowing freely so when we let Him reign, He can pour out of us.

Reference: Matthew 5:13-16