captured by the lights

The tree is finally up. Lights, no decorations.

On the sixth day of December, I feel behind on my decorating... which doesn't bode well for the boxes of Christmas treasure stacked in the garage. I was already feeling like that I might decorate lightly this year...

While the church was being decorated last night, we talked about the Christmas tree. Evergreen. Always. For Jesus, who is always.  And the lights, oh how they twinkle and capture my heart.  They are for the light that Jesus brings to our life.  

I sit and sip and let myself be warmed by the hot tea and the brilliant lights. Inside and out.

Those lights can almost fool me into believing that the ornaments aren't necessary. But each ornament is such a part of our life, capturing one moment in time. Gifts that we have only because of the One who is life itself.   And so the boxes will come out soon... and we will unwrap and remember and laugh.  {I might even let a tear or two fall... every year those pre-school ornaments somehow become more and more precious to my heart.} 

Taking another moment to gaze, I realize...  that once the tree is fully adorned, those lights will not only twinkle, but they will send reflections of glass and glitter, only magnifying the wonder...

There are two ways of spreading light;
to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. 
-Edith Wharton