Christmas brings back so many memories for most everyone. When I was a girl, Christmas was simpler. I remember when we got out of school for the Christmas break (usually a week before Christmas), Mom would pick us up from school and take us to the Boy Scouts Christmas tree farm (really just a corner lot in downtown Gadsden). We would pick out the perfect tree and proudly take it home. It was always a cut, live tree, and the aroma would fragrance the house.
Mom or Dad would put the tree in the stand, but then we had to wait. My mother was an expert light stringer! She intricately placed the lights throughout the tree so that it looked like it would glisten from the inside out. But we could not start decorating until Mom clipped the big, bulky colored lights into the tree. The anticipation of decorating the tree with homemade chains we had hand colored and cheap silver icicles we had bought for 10 cents at the dime store was simply more than I could handle. Such good times!
Then, as I got a little older, I remember Mother letting us put lights around the picture window in the living room! We thought we were uptown! Lights on the tree PLUS lights framing the picture window. I will never forget the glow and joy of the lights!
Today, our houses glow with many, many lights. Lights on several trees, lights on the mantel, lights on the outside of the house, lights on the shrubbery, and even lights on the stores and streetlights! But have you ever stopped to wonder why we string lights at Christmas?
Many say it is to replicate the North Star that guided the shepherds and the wise men to baby Jesus, and that may be part of it. But the lights are a symbol of Christ himself. Sadly, this world has become a dark place of much evil, hatred, and suffering. We as humans have made it this way. But Christ came as a light into the darkness to bring life, truth, and joy that we cannot generate ourselves, no matter how hard we try.
Imagine a totally dark room. You walk into it and can see nothing. But one simple candle can illuminate the entire room! Jesus’ birth is that one candle that was given to the world to save us and bring us so much joy, love, forgiveness, and hope that we will never be in the darkness again! Once I gave my life to Him, my soul leaped with boundless elation and fulfillment because I knew My Lord would be in me forever.
So this Christmas, with every twinkling light, remember our Savior born in a manger, humbly but boldly. He was born to bring light into the world and to you!
Isaiah: 9:2 “the people living in the darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned”. NLT
Merry Christmas,
Jeri Lynn Daniel
Lean into Jesus Ministries
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