If you know me, you know that I have an infatuation with twinkly lights. The way they subtly brighten up a room and make it feel so much cozier brings me a ridiculous amount of joy. I love them so much so that during my Senior year in college my roommates and I kept our christmas tree up, lights ornaments and all, from December until graduation in May with zero shame. It happened, don’t judge us. So you could see how Christmas-time is especially awesome to me… twinkly lights everywhere you turn. There’s something comforting about even on the darkest street – during Christmas time those lights can brighten your path home.
In my opinion, Jesus being the “light” is possibly the best and most true analogy of all time. He truly did and still does light up the dark, like the twinkly lights that I love so much. During Christmas, the celebration of the birth of Jesus, the lights we put up are symbolic of THE light that came into our dark world and showed us all our pathway ‘home’. All of the years in the Old Testament God’s people walked in the darkness of their sin and were told stories about someone who would come on a mission to makes all paths straight – someone who would bring a LIGHT to the broken world. On Christmas those words became flesh in Jesus. Although we still live in a hurt and broken world, through sharing the truth of Jesus we can experience the joy, peace and forgiveness that invites us into a relationship with Him. The twinkle lights of the Lord are everywhere, not just during Christmas time. I witness His light in little and big moments every single day, so much so that I really should start writing them down (next blog post possibly)! As it was put so well in John 1:1-8… seriously so poetic I can’t even,
“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 all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.” (emphasis added)
He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. I myself am not the light, but how amazing that we all get to be witness’ to the light of Jesus and share that with others. Me without Jesus is lost in the darkness of the world, the temptation, loss, and unexplained violence. As a human I still fall-short each day, but by the grace of God, “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”.
Throughout scripture, God teaches others by telling stories and asking questions. He asked questions that he already knew the answer to, but these questions helped challenge His people to wrestle with those questions internally and find the true answer. He asks, “Why are you afraid?” To lead us to the answer that, with Him there is no reason to be afraid. The question God put on my heart was, “Why the World Race?” “What is your purpose for going” Even if I thought I knew the answer to this before, I think tussling with these questions helps open my eyes to what God is trying to show me. As these questions challenged me, the answer was reinforced and could not have been made more clear this past Sunday.
Every other Sunday I volunteer at church to help out in Sunday school. The kids I teach are in Kindergarten and usually we have about 5-7 show up to class. Last Sunday, for some reason we only had one kid show- I’m assuming the Bear’s were playing and all the parents went to the earlier service. I recognized the little girl that showed up from classes before, she was shy and always clung to her daddy’s side when he dropped her off. Since she was the only child in class that day she was very chatty with me and the other helper. We talked about her week while we colored a picture of Mary and Joseph. Our scripture lesson was about when the angels came to speak to Mary and Joseph, so we told her who the people on the coloring page were and that they were Jesus’ earthly parents, but there was a definite look of confusion.
During our worship songs, she actually danced along with me when she would normally sit and watch. We danced around, spun and wiggled and listened to all her favorite songs. One of the songs sparked a conversation about how Jesus was the greatest gift of all. I told her that the whole reason for Christmas was to celebrate Jesus’ birthday. She clearly thought I was crazy. After worship, we started the lesson and God was working through me as I tried my best to make it seem less like “class” and more like fun. I told her that she could play the angel Gabriel and we put her white sweater over her head to pretend. The other helper in the class played Mary and I narrated our little story. She took such pride in playing the angel and speaking to Mary about how she would bear God’s son and that it would be the greatest blessing of all. I saw the light bulb go off in her head – she was starting to understand how Jesus came into the world. At the end of class we asked her questions about the angels, Mary, Joseph and Jesus. She answered them proudly and when I asked her why we celebrate Christmas, she said with a smile, “Jesus was born!” And then, my heart melted.
The joy it brings me to see the lightbulb go off for these tiny humans who are understanding the truth of Jesus was a reinforced answer to my World Race question. The World Race is the opportunity to be His hands and feet, to witness and share His grace in a larger life changing way. God was reminding me that His purpose for me is to help turn on the lightbulb for the children who feel abandoned, so that light can illuminate the fact that they are immeasurably loved and are most definitely not alone.
I’m inviting you to join me to help shine His light. If you’re interested in joining my support team please click on the “Support Me” tab at the top of my blog page. I’m so thankful for my support team and the prayers/funds I’ve received so far. I have a goal of raising $10,000 by the time I leave for training in June. It would take raising $1400 a month to reach that goal and I can’t do it without any of you. I’ll leave you with this song, because it was one of my favorites when I was little and this Gospel choir gets dowwwwwn – let it shine, ya’ll.
