The Lights That Still Shine After Christmas

It's the day after Christmas and all the celebrations and traditions are behind us. We gathered up all our memories, recognized how much we are blessed and still rejoice because our Savior is with us. Lights are still wrapped along banisters and strung about the house, but even with all their colors, they could never keep out the kind of darkness that still remains for some.

Crinkled wrapping paper remains have been cleared away from the floor, but there is one gift that is yet to be unwrapped. It isn't just any gift though, it's the greatest gift of all time. It's the free gift of Christ's love and for some, it might never be opened.

The thing that saddens me most is how close the world came. It was right in front of their faces. They sang about Christ the Savior being born in Bethlehem and how He's come to save us from our sins. The words were coming out of their mouths, but their hearts didn't even begin to understand. They were looking, but they weren't really seeing. They were hearing, but they weren't even listening.

There's a broken world out there, people walk around as if they were whole, but the emptiness eats at them every day. They've walked in darkness all year long, but for 25 days in December they peeked at the light. They saw something, but they didn't know how to hold onto it. I know this because I was one of them once and let me tell you something...I saw something colorful, a love that ruled a believing life and I wanted that. I saw that joy and I knew I needed that. I turned from my sins because I was told that His arms would be wide open and they were. Another Christian showed me the light and little by little, God pulled me out of my blind cave. We've got to love like that, so that others will want to know why. We've got to walk in the light, because somewhere someone out there is hungry for change.

My sin has pulled me back for so long and even though I still cling to it sometimes, I know its time to shake it off, all that fear. If we are children of light then we'd better start acting like it, otherwise we have nothing offer to a hurting world. He is the light, we are His children and that makes us children of Light. We don't get taken down after Christmas to be stored away in the basement for next year, tempting as that is, its just not an option. A heart never has a break from beating and if it does then it becomes useless. The sun comes up every day and when it does we know its there. We have to live like that, otherwise we're as good as dark.

"He redeemed my soul from going down to the pit, and I will live to enjoy the light." ~Job 33:28