Homes, businesses, churches, trees, fireplace mantles, staircase railings, city parks and light poles.  These are just a few of the places and items that you will find adorned with lights during the month of December.  White ones and brightly colored ones, tiny ones and the big vintage ones from our childhood. Twinkling or not.  All one color or multi colored.  We all seem to love Christmas lights.

Those lights, they beckon us don’t they?  Our eyes are drawn to those lights.  We drive around our towns to see the lights at Christmas time.  We may even travel a fair distance to take in an extra special display of these lights.  They persuade us to linger. They slow down our driving.  They invite us to pause our hurried schedule.   The lights are almost always successful in their purpose.  We do linger, we do pause our hurried schedule, our eyes take in their sparkly beauty.

It could be later that night, or a week down the road and those Christmas lights do it again.  They will beckon you.  

Your day has been long.  Nothing has gone right.  Supper has been made and cleaned up.  Piles of laundry have been washed but stare you down, waiting to be folded and put away.  Helping the kids with their homework has been conquered, but not without some battle scars.  Baths have been given and the kids have been tucked into bed, FINALLY!   You wrap a couple of presents.  You pay some bills and pack lunches for tomorrow. You pull the least wrinkled clothes out of the laundry pile and hunt down everyones shoes.  Its a preventative measure, hoping to limit the meltdowns  the next morning.  You are tired.  To the bone tired.  As you start getting ready for bed, you begin turning off the 25 lights that the kids left on all over the house.  Christmas lights and a few candles are the only lights that remain.  The Christmas lights get your attention again. You push back the urge to just go to bed.  You notice that your physical space has been transformed.  It is different than it was just 5 minutes ago.  You sit in the stillness and enjoy the quiet and the glow of the lights for a little bit before exhaustion calls your name again and you unplug the lights and go to bed.  

Christmas lights ARE great.  They transform our neighborhoods, city parks and light poles, and even our living rooms at the end of a long day.   Christmas lights ARE awesome……. but also temporary.  They beckon our EYES.  Once they are taken down and packed away, they no longer have the ability to make us stop and linger.  They can no longer call us to pause our hurried, hectic lives. The peace, calm and even excitement they once brought has been stuffed in a box and placed in the attic.

THERE IS A BETTER LIGHT THAT BECKONS YOU!

This better Light doesn’t just transform your physical surroundings.  This better Light that beckons you has the ability to transform your heart, your life, and your eternal home. This Light truly transforms neighborhoods, families, communities.  The Light that pursues you is not a temporary light.  This Light isn’t seasonal.  It can never be packed away and stuffed in the attic.  NEVER.  This Light has overcome darkness FOREVER!   The Light shines in the darkness and has OVERCOME IT!  John 1:5

JESUS CHRIST IS THE LIGHT THAT BECKONS  YOUR HEART RATHER THAN YOUR EYES.

The light of Jesus will call you to linger with Him.  He invites us to slow down and pause our hurried schedule.   Accept His invitation.  Give in and sit in the stillness.  Open your Bible and find the light of truth in His word.  You will notice that your heart is being transformed.  It is different than it was just 5 minutes ago.  Calm.  Peaceful.  You will want to linger.  If our hearts are willing, He will always be successful in His purpose, that we might find the calm and peace and joy that only He can offer.  Transformation WILL happen.  We will not want to leave His presence.  Gratitude and blessings replace the frustrations and stresses that were on our mind just a short time ago. You will want to just stay and stare at His light.  

When, if only for a while, the only thing you focus on is Jesus, the stress of the day that has already been and the things still waiting to be done, fade away.  Our perspective changes in the LIGHT of His glory and in the PEACE of His presence.

Do you feel it?  That tug that won’t go away.  He is pursuing your heart with a fierceness and love that you can’t wrap your head around or begin to understand.  There are things in this world that look bright and shiny and attractive.  They seem to beckon our eyes. Do you find that the appeal of those things flicker out after awhile?  Do they lose their their attractiveness?  That’s because they are a false light.  Jesus has real light waiting for you.  

LIFE GIVING LIGHT.  

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

Jesus Christ is knocking at the door of your heart! Do you hear Him knocking?  Answer the door!  Don’t hide in the living room hoping He will go away.  Don’t tell yourself you are too busy for company right now.  And never, ever, ever think it is too messy to let Him in.  You never have to clean things up before you invite Him inside. He is beckoning you into a relationship with Him.  He wants to give you His light.  He wants to give you eternal LIFE.  Remember how the Christmas lights beckoned your eyes and transformed your physical space?   Jesus wants to transform your heart and stimulate your eyes, allowing you to see all things through HIS eyes.  He wants to hand you a new pair of glasses!  

My heart longs and aches for you to know Jesus and have His transforming LIGHT!  I pray that as you sit in the quiet and stillness of your Christmas lights, you will reach for the hand that is the Light of the World.  He is reaching for YOU!  

The transformation that will take place in your heart will be exceedingly more beautiful than the most glorious display of Christmas lights you have ever seen.  

I hope you never look at Christmas lights quite the same!  Next year when you hang your Christmas lights, I hope they are more than just a Christmas decoration.  I hope they are a reflection of the light of Jesus that lives inside of you!  To God be the glory!

If you would like to spend some time in God’s word, I have listed some scripture verses below that talk about His life giving light.

Matthew 4:12-17     Isaiah 9:1-3       Matthew 5:14-16      Psalm 119:105     John 1:5          John 8:12     1 Peter 2:9       Ecclesiastes 2:13

MERRY CHRISTMAS!