“The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.” – John 1:9
Jesus says, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” – John 8:12
As most know by now, Fall is my favorite season as I’m certain that I write about it here every chance that I get. So, although I love seeing all the Christmas decorations in stores and on my social media feeds, our tradition is to decorate our house for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. I wanted to enjoy all the autumn colors until the bitter end.
This past Friday as Brad and I hauled in all of the Christmas décor and began setting up our tree, lo and behold, a strand of lights was not working. Brad tried all the things – new fuse, new bulbs, even banging on them, all-the-things! Nothing was helping. Then we remembered that the strand didn’t work last year either. However, this time last year, I was approaching finals in seminary and just didn’t have the emotional or physical bandwidth to go store to store looking for another tree. So, we just made do. As I thought about last year, I couldn’t even recall those lights not working but photos confirmed it. Indeed, some of our lights were not working. And that was okay. But now, we (mainly me) have the muster to figure out a solution so that our lights shine brightly this year.
I share this to remind each of us that sometimes we just don’t have the stamina to do all-the-things and that is okay. However, during this time of year and especially when the world seems more chaotic and uneasy than ever before, let us be reminded of the light of the world. This advent season we are reading Matt Rawle’s book, The Heart That Grew Three Sizes: Finding Faith in the Story of the Grinch, this past week’s chapter reminded us about how we light candles of peace, hope, love, and joy, all that light is meant to dispel something. Lighting the candle of peace means we hate war. Shining a hopeful light means we hate despair’s shade. A worshipful joy should stamp out our mourning, and the candle that reminds us that love should be shown without pretending. Hate evil and hold onto what is good.
Perhaps this is the year that you let a strand of lights go dark. Perhaps next year you will have the bandwidth to fix them. The Old and New Testaments remind us over 200 times about light. Perhaps we need to hear it, read it, see it that many times to be reminded of the light and the good that it can and will do in this world. So, whether you sit with that strand of lights out or not, may you be reminded of the light during this season of Advent. May you be reminded of the light you bring into this world.
May we each do good with our light now and in the times ahead.
Peace,
Pastor Heidi