The Light is Coming

So I was driving home from my company's Christmas party and I noticed the Christmas lights illuminating the owner's yards, front porches, and entire properties... The amount of light and community feel this brought to all the neighborhoods was both beautiful and warming.

When I returned home I decided it was time for a good relaxing smoke of my pipe and some time alone (I sometimes do this as a time to get alone and just consider the truths of life in this world).  As I was smoking my pipe, I noticed the neighbors in the back yard. I have three or four neighbors who have lights strung up on their houses and the trees in their yards. I thought to myself about how beautiful the lights were and how appreciative I was that they would share this beauty with the neighborhood.

I considered our conversations at my church through the advent season; about us being a people who wait for a gift like Christ, about the generosity of a father who gives his son (and this world) to a wretched people like us! What about these people with their yards all ablaze with lights, inflatable snowmen, inflatable Santas, and singing about jingle bells??!! I was thinking about how beautiful their light displays were, thinking about how ugly the light display I created was!

Then the Father hit me with a realization. "Do these people know that there is a meaning behind putting lights on your house because of Christmas (the coming of Christ)?" Then I thought to myself, "Do I know of (or can think of a meaning) behind putting lights out for Christmas? Or even for lighting candles for this holiday?

God hit me with this one. Jesus Christ was meant to be a light. God sent him to be an example for those of us who are prone to sinning. We know this too (as believers in Christ, at least), that we are to be a light to the world. But, I think in the same instance that Christ was meant to be a light to any who would see it. Jesus came to be an example, to be a representation of God's promise to us.  He was also a fulfillment of God's promise to us, for us to have a King and a savior.

But what does this all mean with Christmas lights? Well, I think this means that especially during this time of year (the Advent, the coming of Christ, the fulfilling of a promise) that we are believers in a promise! We need to be reminded that we are loved by the creator of all which is around us and who is around us!  The people whom God has surrounded us by are a very important reason behind our belief. If we believe in Christ and do not seem to care about them or their feelings, we fail. Jesus would go to the people who were considered the worst kind of people and he would try to understand their pain. Who are we to say they don't belong or aren't worth a glance? The most important question these lights made me ask was "Do these people even know why they lights on their houses this time of year?" Of course this question led me to ask this question of the Internet (AKA I did research, imagine that); My research shows that Christmas lights were originally meant to light up the Christmas tree a few minutes for a couple of nights before Christmas day and the reasoning wasn't mentioned during the article. However, outdoor lights were started "as a tradition" and "as a marketing campaign" by someone in Thomas Edison's camp to get people to buy more light bulbs "this season."  You don't have to take my word for it, I can give reference if you request it. The question this asks of me is "Are we really putting lights up out side our houses because of Edison and the magical incandescent bulb, when all of this amazing 'Jesus' stuff is going on???"  It would seem (I'm afraid) that this is the case.

When I stood in my backyard with my pipe in my mouth, I wondered whether or not those lights were symbols of the Love of God and the Light of Christ. I am putting money on the fact that they represented the 'Lectricity of Edison and the Lust of goods instead.

I was encouraged, however, that there are so many people who are celebrating a holiday that was created for the Son of God and was wondering how easy it would be for that conversation to happen. "So what do your Christmas lights mean to you, neighbor Jim?" I am just curious how those conversations can go? Do we have a place to say something? Am I out of place assuming that my neighbors have a fetish for commercial lighting companies? Or that they are lighting their house for the light that Christ is? Or for the reminder that we should be a light?

Lets remember that this Christmas Christ is coming. He is coming as a promise to us from his and our Father, who is in heaven. Let's be encouraged by his faithfulness and his love to send someone he loves to suffer our suffering, to feel our pain and for us to experience his Love. Merry Christmas readers, He loves us Jesus and Christmas are a symbol of this to us!