Category Archives: Christmas

Lighting Up

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Outdoor lightsDecorating a home for Christmas is an important part of greeting the holiday season, and the celebration begins when the boxes come up from the basement or down from the attic. The process readies us for a party that will honor the most important birth of all time, and each decoration is a reminder of that.

My favorite is the lights. Jesus came to bring eternal light to all of us, which is our connection to the warm glow of a Christmas tree or the lights outside on our bushes.

But in January, the dismantling begins, and in these last days I’ve put everything back into the basement bins for another year. The house looks half-naked now, which is why I left a little something in place a while longer: the lights.

“What do you think of winter-white lights on the mantle?” I said to Birgitta. We nestled them in an evergreen garland and will enjoy them till spring.

Mantle lights

What is it about a string of tiny, low-watt light bulbs that attracts us? Maybe it’s that the presence of light equates to an absence of darkness. Or maybe they’re a cheerful influence when winter’s long nights threaten to tug us down. Or maybe a string of lights on a mantle simply warm us internally when icy winds blow outside.

In the Bible Jesus refers to himself as “the light of the world.” (John 8:12) He follows this statement by explaining that he’s referring to salvation and the eternal life it brings, which is an escape from eternal darkness.

But he also brought all kinds of other light when he came: the light to our pathways, the light of understanding, the light of fellowship with others, the light of living righteously, the light of forgiveness, and the light of freedom. But that isn’t all.

Amazingly, partnering with Jesus somehow transforms us into light-giving beings, too. How this happens and what it means remains a mystery, but as we believe it, we’re blessed by it.

The way I see it, Jesus as the Light comes to us, offering to make us children of light, while lighting our paths, which lead to the light of eternity. Although I don’t understand it, I do know it’s very cool.

But as with every blessing God delivers, he wants us to pass it along. After he lights us up, we’re to shine for him. As we used to sing in Sunday school, “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.”

String of lights

In light of all that light, my string of mantle-lights doesn’t amount to much. But maybe the underlying reason I love Christmas lights so much is that their steady glow sheds a little more light on the True Light and why he came. If so, maybe I should leave them plugged in and shining all year long.

“Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)

 

Delete that.

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When families come together over the holidays, inevitably there are picture-taking sessions. Everybody lines up, and someone gives the universal command to “Say cheeeeese!”

NCN.

Faces smile and cameras click, but when we inspect the finished product, results are mixed. Sprinkled amongst the happy poses we see faces with closed eyes, artificial smiles, goofy expressions, or strained looks. None of us are picture-perfect. Even in pictures.

We do strive for that, though, primping in front of mirrors and dressing in flattering clothes. Thinking we look pretty good, we smile for the camera with confidence, but often when we see the photo, we grimace and say, “Delete that.”

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Never being satisfied with our exteriors probably emanates from not being satisfied with our interiors. But is that good or bad? Isn’t it prideful to think we really look good? Wouldn’t it also be pompous to assume we’ve “got it all together” on the inside, too?

According to Scripture, what’s happening outside and inside are polar opposites. Proverbs 31 says that dwelling on external beauty is vain. Working on being charming is defined as downright deceitful. (v. 30)

 

Yet we insist on deleting photos of ourselves that aren’t attractive, which encourages us to play mind games about external beauty. So we don’t like what we see in our pictures, but what are we supposed to do with those feelings of inadequacy and displeasure?

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We’re to walk away from the camera and look inside instead.

What does it mean to focus on the inside? God details it for us. We’re to dwell on things that are worthy of praise, are lovely, pure, commendable, honorable, true, and just. (Philippians 4:8) If we do that, our insides will become beautiful, and something else interesting happens, too.

 

Our outsides, no matter what they physically look like, begin to take on a special attractiveness that is radiated from the inside out. We’ve all known people who are beautiful on the inside. We enjoy spending time with them and are willing to sacrifice just to be in a relationship with them. We can’t usually explain it, but we want to be around them.

Maybe that’s because they’ve taken on Christ-like characteristics inside, and after that, what they look like doesn’t matter at all. Psalm 27 tells us David found great satisfaction in “gazing upon the beauty of the Lord.” Maybe it’s a bit of His beauty that we’re recognizing as attractive within people who have their insides in order.

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External beauty disappears with age, without exception. Inner beauty has staying power. As a matter of fact, it’ll stay with us throughout eternity. So let’s not fuss over pictures we want to delete but hold up a mirror instead to what’s happening on our insides. When that becomes beautiful, the rest of ourselves will follow.

 

AFC

“Let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart… which in God’s sight is very precious.” (1 Peter 3:4)

Christmas Gifts from Nate

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Nate’s been gone for 3 years. Elements of grieving linger in our family, and we all think about him daily, sometimes hourly. Once in a while I still have a minute-to-minute day when he’s in my thoughts constantly.

The holidays when we’re all together except him can trigger renewed grief, but this year Nate “appeared” during our family Christmas celebration by putting a gift for each of his children under the Christmas tree. Not directly, of course, but through me.

I’d kept all of Nate’s neckties except those having to do with the holidays. (The Ties That Bind) Those went to his office mates, since they’d loved teasing him every December when he wore a different Christmas tie each day. But the others (60 or so) hung in my closet, a potent reminder that he was gone.

Maybe the sight of them should have cheered me, but during the 3 years since he died, they’ve produced only sadness. So last year I hung them in the back of the closet where I wouldn’t see them at all, which remedied my immediate problem but wasn’t a permanent solution. I contemplated giving them to Good Will, but that didn’t seem right either.

Nate loved ties and had over 100 of them. He enjoyed the selection process each morning and wore them all, even the ones that had dots of salad dressing or other stains. The truth was that I loved his ties, too, each one a mini-friend. I really wanted to keep them “in the family.”

So, at the beginning of this year, I asked God for an idea. What could I do with the ties that would be meaningful to my family without being a sad reminder of Nate’s absence? As always, the Lord had a great idea. He reminded me of a friend of a friend who sews for a living. Could she do something with Nate’s ties that would transform yet preserve them?

After a few emails back and forth, she and I settled on 16” throw-pillows made from the ties, so I mailed them all to her and hoped for the best. When the finished pillow covers arrived in early December, I knew God’s idea had been the perfect solution. Each pillow was unique and beautiful, and the ties were no longer unused and sad, hanging in my closet.

As I wrapped the pillows in Christmas paper, I worried our children might feel funny about seeing all those familiar ties cut into pieces, but they loved their pillows and quickly identified their favorite ties.

Our God is utterly faithful in all categories. When he invites us to pray, he intends to answer. And he always, always follows through, even if it’s just with an idea for what to do with a husband’s ties.

“My God will meet all your needs.” (Philippians 4:19)