Lights of Christmas

I know that many of the Christmas traditions are rooted in pagan festivities hundreds of years ago. I see this as Christians took the festivities and created a holy day to celebrate the birth of Jesus. One of the elements of the festivities that Christians have attained are the lights. Jesus is the light that brightens our darkened world. In fact, a light guided the Magi to Jesus. Christmas lights represent the light that Jesus brings to the world. He brought that light from the moment he entered our world.

Jesus is the light of the world. As a light, he shows us the way to life that is full of peace. We can have peace in turbulent times with Jesus. He gives us light to see the way all the way to the end of any trial. We must take our focus off of the problem and focus on Christ in order to see the light.

In the most difficult times in life, light shines through with wisdom from people in our lives. We may not always accept or like the wisdom, but when we look back and reflect, we realize that the wisdom was a guide to our way out of the situation. Light shines on a darkened path and we can choose to follow the light or to stay in the darkness.

Jesus does not force any of us to follow Him. He allows all of us to choose our path and to choose how to follow Him. People demand that we do specific tasks. Those people are not Jesus. Jesus just asks us to come to Him, and Jesus allows us to come to Him at any moment in our lives and receive the light, even when we have been engulfed in the darkness.

One of the best parts of Jesus being the light is that no matter how far into the darkness of sin and our own evil choices, Jesus desires for us to come to Him. In fact, He is waiting for us, and when He sees us, like the father in the story of the Prodigal Son, he runs to meet us. In this Christmas season and into the New Year, may we walk in the light of Jesus and guide others to walk with us in the light to meet Jesus, so they can walk away from darkness and into the light of Jesus. It all starts with small lights, just like the star that only the Magi noticed. May we all notice the light of Jesus.