Advent- Christmas Lights

 During Advent I want to take four non-sacred aspects of Christmastime and look at how we can use them to point ourselves and our families to Christ.  We will look at Christmas lights, Christmas trees, Christmas food and Christmas presents.  Hopefully, these four things will train your eyes to remember Jesus well.

"Kids, let's go drive around and look at the lights."
"Yes!"

This is something we do quite regularly during Christmastime.  In fact, the radio station I work for encourages people to go out on Thursday nights to look at the lights while continuous Christmas music is played.  So, we pile in the car and explore different neighborhoods in our beloved hometown.  The kids love pointing out all the different lights they see.

Our favorite house is 103 Eliasen Avenue in Waverly.  The Wiechmann family, each year, synchs their many lights to music on a radio frequency to raise money for St. Jude's Children's Hospital.  Waverly Lights is a a fun tradition.

When our family is with my in-laws we go to see Rotary Lights.  Each Christmastime the LaCrosse Rotary Club collects donations for the food bank and roughly 160,000 visitors gaze at over 3,000,000 lights in amazing displays throughout the park.

Christmas lights are part of our tradition.  We have them in our house and on our house.  We love to look at them.  As night comes sooner and lasts longer we get more opportunities to look at electric lights.  Some say this tradition has pagan roots, like many Christmastime traditions.  Perhaps that's true, but what do Christmas lights tell us about Christmas?

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.
Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.  In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it." John 1:1-5 (emphasis mine).

"When Jesus spoke again to the people, He said, 'I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." John 8:12 (emphasis mine).

As we drive around looking at the lights, let us see the Light of the World.  Let us show our kids the beautiful lights in the dark night and let's point them to the Light that shines in the darkness.  Let us gaze at the beauty of coordinated electric light while pondering the Light of Life that shocked our dead self to eternal life.

Let's train our eyes and minds to take every sight and every thought of light captive this Advent.  Let's take the non-sacred Christmastime tradition of Christmas lights and use it to set our hearts and minds on the Holy One, the Light of the World today.