Growing up in the North Country of New England, Christmas always heralded the darkest time of the year.  It gets dim at 3:30 PM and dark at 4 PM. It can be a demoralizing time of the year.

However, there were always the Christmas lights!  Wonderful, bright, gaudy Christmas lights.  My grandmother, who lived next door, loved to drive around other neighborhoods to see what variety of lights were on display.  I was often her driving companion and later her chauffeur. 

Sadly, we never had our own Christmas lights.  Never enough money to waste on something as useless as lights that did nothing but illuminate the outside of a house.  Never had a house that was worth illuminating.  Never had outdoor electrical outlets or enough extension cords to run the lights.  And…specifically, we would never have been able to convince my father to get on a ladder in the middle of the winter to put lights on a house.

When I married and moved even farther north, I faced the same issues that I had as a child, with the added complication of the cold weather.  Brutally cold weather that made it almost impossible to put lights on the outside of your house.  How did other folks accomplish the lighting feat?

Then, we moved to Florida!  Then, we bought a house where the previous owners had lit the shrubs all around the house and they left the lights for me to continue their tradition.  How happy I am to carry on!  It is a lot of work, but the bright shining lights at the corner of our dark street make it all worthwhile.   It makes others happy, too.  It brings light to the darkness.

It is a childhood dream come true.  My grandmother would be so pleased with my house.  Why is it that the light shining in the darkness is so important to us?  Throughout history, the use of the term “darkness” expresses times of trial and duress, times of violence and pestilence, times of sadness and need.

I have no idea of how many times we refer to Christ as “the light of the world.”  This imagery immediately creates a sense of hope and rescue from the darkness.  A light that will fill the whole world is one that we will all want to see and cherish. 

We can bring that light to the world without the use of electrical elements when we emulate the love of Christ in all that we do.  God loves us unconditionally, all of us, regardless of who we are, where we live or what we have done in our lives.  To practice that type of love is the greatest means of bringing “The Light of the World.”

So, light your houses and keep Christ in your hearts all year long!  Christ-The Light of the World!

Terri