Christmas Lights

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is putting up Christmas lights. On occasion my family will go on walks in the neighborhood and look at all the light displays on various houses and yards. Our own attempts at outdoor lights goes back to the Old House (our house before this one), when we put up the old fashioned big kind, and they stayed up all year. In fact, if my memory serves me well, they were up for several years.

The second time we tried outdoor lights was about 8-10 years ago when someone have us some icicle lights, but they were the dumb kind that you had to hook onto a plastic thingy that made it look like icicles. Those didn’t last long.

A few years ago we had am American flag made of Christmas lights that we hung from our attic window. Those were cool, but didn’t make it through the summer—by the time Christmas came around again they either didn’t work or were nowhere to be found (I can’t remember which).

We stick to indoor lights now. Some of us even put them up in our bedrooms, which I did for many years, but could not find mine this year. Oh well, I guess I am saving myself the task of getting used to sleeping with a ton of light in my room, and then adjusting to the pitch black once I take them down in January.

Christmas is the season of lights, not just of dinky little light-bulbs that we put on our tree, but the Light of the world, Jesus Christ the Messiah. As the angels appeared in light and told the shepherds of His birth, may we, His chosen people, shine His light in us and proclaim the Gospel to our dark world.

“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great Light; those who dwelt in the land of intense darkness and the shadow of death, upon them has the Light shined.” Is. 9:2

“The people who sat (dwelt enveloped) in darkness have seen a great Light, and for those who sat in the land and shadow of death Light has dawned.” Mat. 4:16

“I the Lord have called You [the Messiah] for a righteous purpose and in righteousness; I will take You by the hand and will keep You; I will give You for a covenant to the people [Israel], for a light to the nations [Gentiles].” Is. 42:6

“You are the light of the world…Let your light so shine before men that they may see your moral excellence and your praiseworthy, noble, and good deeds and recognize and honor and praise and glorify your Father Who is in heaven.” Mat. 5:14a, 16

“Do all things without grumbling and faultfinding and complaining [against God] and questioning and doubting [among yourselves], that you may show yourselves to be blameless and guileless, innocent and uncontaminated, children of God without blemish (faultless, unrebukable) in the midst of a crooked and wicked generation, among whom you are seen as bright lights (stars or beacons shining out clearly) in the [dark] world.” Phil. 2:14-15