Christmas Eve 2008

It’s Christmas Eve and I am sitting in my living room near the tree. The lights in the house are off and I am writing this blog by the lights of the Christmas tree. I have a lot of thoughts going through my mind tonight. Since I have been back in America this year I have noticed some new things that I don’t remember so much before. It always happens when I return from Europe after being gone awhile.

One example of this is “lines”. Since I have returned to America I have noticed how Americans, or at least southerners where I live in Florida, have to have so much space as they stand in store or café lines. In other word when I walk into a café and want to buy a cup of coffee the “line”, even though there might just be three people standing in it, is so long. At first I almost walked in front of people to the counter not even realizing they were actually standing in line. My son or daughter, who has been living here longer than I have, had to remind me that those people, even thought they were standing so far from each other and so far from the counter, were actually standing in line. It took me some getting used to at first. I would walk up to pay for something in a store and I would feel the urge to push from the back of what I perceived was the end of the line so that we would be a little closer to the cashier. Now you might read this and wonder why I was in such a hurry, well it wasn’t really being in a hurry, I just had to realize that we Americans need our space and don’t to try to change them. This is just one example of what I have observed.

Another thing I have observed this Christmas here in America is that some Americans don’t seem to decorate their houses with any lights and others seem to put so many lights on their house that it looks like something out of Disney World or some Hindu Temple. I don’t ever remember so many lights on one house in my life and that is not counting all the reindeer and Santa’s and etc… Whatever happened to that word “modest”, like in a modest amount of lights? Here it seems that it is either all or nothing. Now this discussion on Christmas lights gets me to the subject of what I really wanted to write about tonight. The amazing amount of lights, even though I am not really impressed, makes me think about what the shepherds must have experienced that first Christmas night. The Bible says that on that night the Angel of the Lord appeared to the Shepherds and the “glory of the Lord” shown around them. Now I have no idea of how bright the glory of the Lord (surely brighter then my neighbors house) must have been, but it was sure enough to scare the shepherds. And even before this night we read that the father of John the Baptist, Zechariah, had already said when speaking of the Christ child that He (Jesus) would, “give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death and guide us to the path of peace” (Luke 1:78). A little while later when Jesus was brought to the Temple by Joseph and Mary, to present Him to the Lord, there was a man there by the name of Simeon. We read that Simeon was a righteous and devout man that was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come (Luke 2:32) and when he saw Jesus he took him in his arms and one of the things he said was that Jesus would be, “a light to reveal God to the nations”. Over and over again in the Bible we read that Jesus was is a light. He is the”Light” in a very dark world that will show humanity the way back to a relationship with God, one that would, give us life and peace.

It is Christmas Eve 2008 and tonight I am thinking about the light of Christ that shines in the darkness. What hope it offers in a darkened world. What joy it gives those who receive it and walk in it and find their way back to God. Tonight, I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and may the light of God shine on you and your family. May His light show you how you can find the Life and Peace that comes from knowing Christ.