Salt

I have been staying with my parents this month. I'm really enjoying being at home. There is a certain sense of stability in it. Many things can be counted on and one fact in particular. - My parents and siblings will retire much earlier than I. This tends to exile me to my room in the evenings. Thus it happened that I was reading on the topic of salt from an old textbook of mine this week.
This may seem an odd topic but I have actually enjoyed it. Salt is something of a novel substance to me. Salt is made by a blend of sodium and chlorine. It's chemical symbol being NaC1. Sodium is an alkali metal with unstable properties. It is capable of bursting into flame when exposed to water. Chlorine is a lethal gas. Yet the combination of these chemicals creates sodium chloride or a solid substance called salt.
I was thinking of Matthew 5:13a which says "Ye are the salt of the earth;"
We are the salt of the earth. Unstable alone but stabilized by Christ. A christian may not always serve the Lord but rather choose to operate without Christ. This would make him unstable like sodium. Able at times to ignite into flame when exposed to the right substances but not always getting the same effect. That, or perhaps lethal at times like chlorine. Affecting others by his lack of zeal for the things of Christ or with his overbearing spirit, giving them a lethal dose of empathy toward the things of Christ.
Sodium and Chlorine alone do not have the same effect as salt but when those chemicals combine they become something that preserves, gives life, and is of service to man. A Christian when bonded with Christ in a proper relationship is salt. Salt that works at preserving nations, standing for purity, promoting cleanliness, enhancing the lives of those around us, and softening others toward the things of Christ, above all perhaps creating the thirst for a relationship with Christ in others.