The Light of Christmas
By Joy Cofield
“Dancing” in the kitchen window, the flame of the candle beckoned me home. As a freshman in college, my friend and I made the 8-hour drive from Tennessee to North Carolina. We were both going home for the first time after we began our career in college just two and half months earlier. It was already dark when we pulled up to my house. There in the window was a beautiful light reflecting from the candle. I was so very thankful and happy that my mother placed it in the window to welcome me home. That was 48 years ago and yet, I remember it in my mind’s eye so clearly.
Candles and Christmas lights have always had a special meaning for me. Through the years, lighting a candle reminds me of the Holy Spirit of Christ who lives in us, and that Jesus IS the light of the world. I like and enjoy the visual that it gives to me to remember His presence of beauty within our souls and within our daily life as He walks with us no matter the emotion that we are experiencing at the time.
Regarding Christmas lights, the white lights call me to be mindful of His calming presence of beauty and peace. Jesus replaced darkness within the world and within our souls with this beautiful light of His constant Presence, Emmanuel, God with us.
Sometimes, the colored lights are helping me to see that we all reflect the presence of Christ in different ways because we have different gifts that He has given to us. While untangling some Christmas lights recently, I thought, sometimes, this is the way our spiritual and relational journeys are. We can all be tangled up with each other because of one disagreement or another. Yet, when looking at the lights where all the colors have their own place to “be” on the tree, it’s as though they know “who” they are and what their purpose is in bringing light and beauty to the whole tree. We each bring the light of Christ to every person we meet whether they are followers of Christ or not. We are expressing Christ’s light with the specific gift He created us with to bring unity and beauty to the whole body of the Church and frankly, to the whole world.
John 8:12 states: (Jesus said,) “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
Christ is the light that guides us home to Himself. He is the Light of Christmas.
Please enjoy listening and singing Lauren Daigle’s song: Light of the World