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)

 

Foundational Decisions

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All of us who were raised in Sunday school sang the song about the foolish man and the wise man who each built a house, one on the sand, the other on a rock. As we enthusiastically did the hand motions, pounding our fists to imitate hammers and wiggling our fingers for rain, we couldn’t wait for the foolish man’s house to go, “Smash!” The bigger our claps, the better.

The last verse of the song says, “Build your life on the Lord Jesus Christ… and the blessings will come down.” As a child I wasn’t quite sure what that meant, but now I know.

The story of the wise and foolish builders was originally told by the master story-teller, Jesus, in Matthew 7. He was illustrating a critical principle: as the foundation goes, so goes the house.

A building project

When all 7 of my grandchildren were staying with us recently, Louisa undertook an interesting building project with the 5 kiddies old enough to participate: a gingerbread house.

I admired her pluck in attempting to manage a mob of youngsters along with bags of icing and bowls of candy, but she eagerly initiated it. In this case, the little house was all made of gingerbread, including its foundation. But it didn’t need to stand through any storm bigger than 10 little hands picking at it over the next few days.

Weakening the house

As it turned out, that finger-picking was all it took to ultimately make the little gingerbread house fall. Apparently cookies and candies don’t make very good building materials.

When Jesus told his story about the wise and foolish men, his obvious point was that we should build our lives on a foundation that will continue to stand through any storm. He, of course, was and is that life-foundation for anyone who so chooses. Those who build on anything else eventually learn that turbulent circumstances carve away their foundation, putting them at risk for a fall. Or, as Jesus put it, for “a great fall.” (v. 27)

But he was making another point in this story, too. Before he got started he said, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be…” wise.

He was saying, “I’m dishing out the truth here, and if you know what’s good for you, you’ll buy what I’m about to say.”

He also detailed the flip side: “Anyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them is foolish.” (v. 26) So if we’re sensible, we’ll build our lives on the Lord, not on money, reputation, possessions, behavior, or anything else that seems like good building materials at the time, but in a storm will surely crumble….

The house went smash.

….just like a house made of gingerbread.

“Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” (Matthew 7:24)

Mountains from Molehills

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Emerald has been a by-the-book baby. At 2½ months, she has smiled through all manner of schedules and a wide variety of loud commotion. Always even-tempered, she’s amazed us with her calm demeanor through restaurant meals, shopping trips, and doctor’s appointments. And she’s been endlessly patient with lots of cousin-cuddles, kisses, and head-pats.

Tonight, however, her sunny disposition disappeared, and nothing satisfied her. Birgitta and I took turns trying to quiet her in what seemed like an interminable effort to get her to sleep, though in reality it lasted only 2 hours.

Birgitta had gone through Emerald’s regular bath and bedtime routine, after which she’d fallen asleep and been put into her bassinet as usual. This child has slept beautifully through-the-night 3 times in the past week alone, once for a 10½ stretch.

Wailing Emerald

So it surprised us when she began fidgeting in her bed immediately, eventually bringing herself up to a full roar. Birgitta picked her up and tried each of the usual soothers: pacing, bouncing on the exercise ball, rocking, patting, and shush-shush-shushing. Nothing worked.

I tried too, but Emerald refused to be calmed, stiffening her legs and flailing her arms while continuing with earsplitting screams. My theory was that whatever had first bothered her (a burp, an intestinal bubble, a sudden noise) was long gone, and she kept hollering just because she had started and couldn’t stop.

Although adults don’t usually open their mouths and yell full-power like babies do, we sometimes wish we could. We object to something undesirable as loud as we dare, and when the facts don’t quickly change, we get carried away with our responses.

But just like Emerald no longer remembered why she was crying, we can work ourselves into the same kind of frenzy for no good reason too, making a mountain out of a molehill.

It isn’t that God doesn’t want us to cry. I can think of 3 good reasons when he does:

  • when we’re mourning over our own sin
  • when we’re sharing in another person’s sorrow
  • when we’re calling out to him from a place of deep deficiency

In these instances our sobbing has positive purposes, which causes the Lord to rush in and minister to the need at hand.

Asleep at last...

Tonight Birgitta and I came to Emerald’s aid, despite believing she had no good reason to scream. But she’s just a baby, so we gave her the benefit of the doubt. Eventually she wore herself out and fell asleep by default.

We’re still puzzled over why she cried so hard for so long, but thankfully God is never puzzled over our crying, always knowing which good reason is behind it.

And in his great love for us, he’s often willing to comfort us even when we’re crying hard for no good reason at all.

“Let all who seek God’s help be encouraged. For the Lord hears the cries of the needy.” (Psalm 69:32-33)