LIGHTS

Tuesday night after our church’s Christmas Eve service, Melinda and I started a new tradition.  Christmas seems to lend itself to traditions.  We have had family ones for decades.  For instance we always read the Christmas story from Luke 2, say a prayer of thanks to Jesus, and listen to Mannheim Steamroller’s version of Silent Night before gifts are distributed and opened.  Year after year, same thing, same order. I am not sure when you can count something a tradition, but I would say if you do the same thing for at least three years you’re well on your way.  So I can’t call this new thing a tradition yet, but I am committed to making it one.  How does this sound?  Drive around looking at Christmas lights while eating Eggnog ice cream from Graeters.   

The light displays are so varied and so much fun to see.  Some streets and neighborhoods are fully lit, house after house with glowing trees lining the boulevard.  There are white lights, blue lights, red lights and multi-colored strands.  There are bush lights and roof lights, lights with patterns and outlines of animals.  Some have lights hanging straight down from 50 foot trees and some have globular lights hanging in the trees.  All cool.

But I realize that once Christmas is over and the lights are taken down, you don’t drive around to look at houses with no lights.  The lights are the draw.  They are why you go.

Jesus came to bring light to the dark night.  He said, “I am the light of the world.”  He was definitely an attraction.  But he also said of His followers, “You are the light of the world.”  Are we as much of an attraction?  “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”  Matt 5:16  

CHRISTMAS TREE

Last night I was sitting on the couch gazing at my Christmas Tree.  It looks different this year.  It is beautiful.  I am amazed that this tree, which in the past looked at best ordinary and at worst sad, can possibly look so good.  I have had this artificial tree for many years now.  It has to be put together and taken apart every year.  It has upwards to 100 branches that are color coded in hopes that when you are finished  the tree looks like a tree and not an hour glass.  It is a challenge to store this beast as it is almost as wide as it is tall.  I have no box big enough to hold the branches.   Each year I begrudgingly set it up, throw on some lights and ornaments and call it done.   It never looked great, and each year during Christmas I decide that this will finally be the year to haul it to the trash when it is time to take it down.  Yet, here it is, up once again.  

This year, however, it looks totally different.  I have a master decorator living in my home.  She saw the tree and what it could become and created a masterpiece.  Old ornaments were replaced with gold and silver.  Burlap garland laced the branches complementing both ornaments and white lights.  A new tree topper gave it the perfect look.  The finished product is breathtaking.  I look at that tree with a whole different attitude.  It is no longer a big old ugly tree that takes up more room than any tree should.  It is no longer a tree that’s “not worth fussin’ with”.    It is a tree I brag about and take pictures of showing them with the pride of a first time father.

What transformed it from a tree that I spoke derisively and derogatorily about to one that I speak affectionately and proudly of?  It was the touch of a master.  I thought about that in relation to my life.  Without the Master’s touch I’m just an unsightly, misfit tree.  But as Eph 2:10 says, “I am His masterpiece, created unto good works.”  He does His best to make us look our best.  I love it.

LOVE AND BLESSING

One truth that thrills me is that God loves me unconditionally.  There is nothing I can do that separates me from his love.  I am His unique and special creation.  He designed me to have fellowship with Him now and enjoy His presence forever.  That is an amazing and comforting truth.  Christmas shouts to us the length God is willing to go to show us His love.  The infinite, boundless, unrestricted God, became flesh and blood to identify with us in our need, and become the one final sin sacrifice for all mankind.

That is an incredible truth.

Yet there is something else that needs to engage our mind.  Though God’s love is without condition, His blessings are not.  Love opens up the door for a relationship with God.  Obedience opens the door to so much more.  Let the love of God, shown by Christmas, open our hearts to more than appreciation of Him.  Let it motivate our obedience to Him.  It is in that posture that the gifts of God flow in greatest measure.  Love and obey.  What a great way to live!!

LOVE WAS WHEN...

Love sightings are always fun.  

To see a couple arm in arm, heads on shoulders, exchanging kisses and realizing the joy that is theirs.  

To see a Mom holding her baby, her child, the look of affection and thanksgiving for that precious life.  

To sit in a photo booth where you get four shots for a buck and shoot silly pics with your best friend.

To see hugs and welcome kisses, laughter and light hearted conversations when family visits for the holidays.

How would you fill in the blank.  Love was when….  How about this one?

Love was when God became a man.  Locked in time and space without rank or place.

We see God’s love in crimson red on the cross of Calvary.  Do we also see it in flesh tones in the cradle in the cave?

God became flesh and dwelt among us.   The beginning of a great love story.