One of the most beautiful scenes at Christmas is a decorated house. Even better, a house of lights with music! 🙂  Here is one example. (Beware it is not a Christmas song, but the display is phenomenal).  We have a local flower shop that decorates their store, but they also have this h-u-u-u-g-e, tall tree they also decorate. I have been tempted to go in and ask him if he puts the lights up every Christmas or just unplugs them. We have a man in our church who goes all out decorating his property and house with lights. They recently downsized and when I asked him about his lights he said he was having them but not as many. It isn’t his age but we had a rain, then a freeze and the light cords froze to the ground. But his house was always a wonderland of beauty. 

In our house, one of the traditions Jo has is putting up the tree Thanksgiving Day and leaving it up until after Christmas. It doesn’t just stay up; it stays lit. Like 24 hours. If one chose to sleep in the living room a sunburn could very well be the result. I kid. Seriously though, the lights are on 24/7, even when we are gone. Growing up we were never blessed with a lot of money (but never starved) so dad would wait until Christmas Eve day and go find a tree. He might pay $1 for it but we didn’t care. It was put up and lit, the train was ready to go, and the house decorated before we came down the stairs on Christmas morning. I don’t even want to think how late mom and dad stayed up to get all that done. But the lights didn’t stay on. That was during the time when safety was definitely more of an issue than now, and those lights really used the electricity. But consider how far we have come since the first lights were used on trees. They were called “candles” and fires were a definite hazard.  🙂

But any light display you can find pales in comparison to what the Bible says: “Jesus is the Light of world.” (John 8:12).  If you are a Christ-follower, the light of Christ has shown into your heart. Why not share that light with someone else this Christmas season? Brighten their world in a very real and permanent way.