It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I'm a big fan of Christmas. Even the secular stuff. Okay, not all the secular stuff. The shop till you drop mentality is not me. But I like glitter and sparkle. I was a big fan as a kid making Christmas cards for my family of adding as much glitter as possible. It showed how much I loved them, right?

So now I'm a grown up. And the sparkle isn't quite what it used to be for me. I learned some new words growing up, garish, ostentatious, gaudy. They put a damper on my enthusiasm for sparkle and glitter. But there are still things I like to see shiny. I like jewelry. I like tinsel, even though my children insist that it isn't necessary to "finish" the look of the Christmas tree. And I like stars. I like to look up at night and see the velvet darkness studded with twinkling spots of lights. I confess, I do not think about how long it takes that light to get here or that it is some sun or planet that imploded years ago and will not be visible soon. I just like to see them shine. Especially on cold winter nights. It makes me think that there is warmth somewhere, looking down and reaching for us.

That first Christmas had the brightest light of all. I see it captured in paintings, drawings, cards, ornaments. What a wondrous thing that must have been to behold. Especially since there weren't any other lights to dim its radiance. No electricity yet. The dark night was positively, well, lit up by this star.

Aren't our lives sort of like that too? We travel in the darkness of our selfishness, our seeing of our lives without seeing others. We traipse down pathways, looking only at our feet, our situation, ourselves, without seeing that light that shines all around us. At Christmas, it's like we suddenly realize that the light is there. That there is something outside of ourselves, our cocoon of self. We see our brothers and sisters in a new illumination. We are reflected with the light of Christ's coming and it's bright enough to want to put on sunglasses, if we'd only really see it.

So join me this Christmas in your "shades" sharing the light of Jesus with each other. Make our light so shine before others, that they will wonder what our source of energy is and when they find out, they'll shine, too! Let's sparkle, glitter and glow together during this season. I brought my clip on's, how about you?