Light Work

Light Work

Ihated the idea of hanging Christmas lights outside of our home. I thought it was a waste of time to put up lights only to take them back down a few weeks later. My wife, on the other hand, had trouble imagining Christmas in our home without adorning it with at least a few lights. So, when we finally moved into our first house, it was going to have its holiday jewelry.  

While we didn’t have many lights to hang, I still had to pull the ladder out of the garage and we still needed to plan where we should hang them. Throughout this process, all I could think about was the time it was going to take.

I made my first trip up the ladder, begrudgingly. With each trip up and down, however, something surprising happened. I started to enjoy it. There was something religious about hanging those lights – a rhythm that was changing me every time I put another bulb in place.

Jon Acuff says, “A good tradition is like a speed bump. It slows you down and reminds you of years gone by.”

This tradition was literally slowing me down, keeping me from the other activities I would rather be doing. But by slowing down, I remembered the joy I had as a child when my family and I would drive around our neighborhood seeing similar lights hung with care on so many homes.

This speed bump in my day also reminded me that Jesus is the light of the world (John 8:12). Where there is confusion, He offers clarity. Where there is death, He offers life. As I hung each bulb, Jesus’ words were being hung on me.

What I used to think was a waste of time had become sacred time. This ritual was not only connecting me to my childhood, but more importantly to my Savior who was born as a light in the darkness. And even though I would take those lights off our house soon, I knew the light and life of Jesus could never be removed from me.