Be Jesus Lights! –  The Difference Between Being With and Doing For

This is “it” for us. All of our family gets together on Christmas Eve evening and shares a meal and offers gifts to one another. It is fun, fellowship and frenzy. We enjoy each other’s company. We love the excitement when the little ones open and delight in their presents. It is easy to forget that some have a completely different experience at Christmas. It is easy to put it out-of-mind that some are absolutely miserable right now. Christmas can seem a bit dark.

My 3-year-old granddaughter has a new name for Christmas lights. She squeals, “Jesus lights!” as we drive around this season looking at the displays that folks decorate their properties with that cause us to say Ahhh, and Ohhh. This stuff is fun and a sweet memory I’ll hold close always. Leave it to a little one to plant a thought that He wants me to share with you, dear reader.

For all the joy and all the hope and peace and love that Jesus came to bring to be realized, we have to be willing to be with the miserable, to be His light. I used to try to avoid any negativity around Christmas because it brought back some memories that hurt. But it is those memories I embrace now because they remind me that there are others hurting and I need to be with them in some way. That is the Gift of Christ. Not that He is always doing things for us, but that is always with us. Emmanuel. “God with us.”

“Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” Matthew 1:23

It is unfathomable that the God which created this whole universe, and you and me, would leave the unimaginable glory of His Kingdom and come to be with us. This is why the Scriptures say in 1 John 4: 8, that “…God is love.” We don’t get to define what love is because He tells us Who love is. And this Love is so great that He could not stand to watch us try to live this life without having a relationship with Him. Without being with us.

We can only taste a tiny bit of this goodness when we think of those we love, perhaps our own children, family members or friends that we want to be with. Look how we cook, clean, handcraft, and shop and prepare to get “ready” for Christmas. An example of being a gift to those our hearts are attached to. Look how our hearts hurt for them when things are not going well and Christmas hurts a bit.

Jesus is the only One that we can attach our heart to that can, through us, bring any measure of comfort or cheer to those who are hurting. There are those who have literally no idea of what it is like to live reconciled to God, that we can share His love with. We can make Christmas a little less hurtful and a little more joyful. We can bring some hope into their New Year by making a resolution to be a light in someone’s world.

“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Let your light so shine before me, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Matthew 5: 14, 16.

Now that is a gift that won’t be exchanged. And it won’t be the strung up kind that we’ll pack away next month. Jesus Lights!

There are those who miss loved ones more than ever right now. Our family has a soldier in Afghanistan this Christmas. Some have lost loved ones this year that they won’t see again this side of heaven. Think of them, pray for them, encourage them and just be “with” them when “doing” something that helps is impossible. We can’t bring people back, we can’t mend broken hearts, but we can share God’s love and that is always a means of comfort to those that are mourning a loss.

“Blessed are those who mourn: for they shall be comforted.” Matthew 5:4. Because He is the Comforter. The Comforter that came to be with us. Is with us.

“Good tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy” to all of you this Christmas!