Speaking in the Light – 5-19

There are too many times we judge others before getting the rest of the story. We just assume that people are lazy or clueless or careless- when the real reason is that there is something overwhelming happening all around them, and we might be able to help them if we would just be willing to throw out a life line rather than stones.
There is the story about a family back in the late 1960’s that put up a beautiful Christmas tree and displayed it prominently in their front window with the lights on for all to see. Now that is nothing out of the ordinary in the month of December. But Christmas came and went that year and along came January, February, and March, and the tree didn’t go down and the lights not only stayed up but also stayed on.
Now this home was in the kind of neighborhood where people got antsy about others who refused to take their holiday decorations down. And by May and June, it sort of became the talk of the neighborhood. There were those who got quite vocal and judgmental and even threatening as they did not appreciate Frosty on the roof with sunglasses on in July.
People gossiped but nobody took the effort to find out if there was perhaps a reason why this family chose to light their Christmas lights in August. That is until one day the local congregation of the family’s church forced their preacher to take action. Little did that clergy man know what he was in for.
Hesitantly he climbed the front steps on a rather humid summer day and rang the bell of the house that everyone in the area had dubbed “winter wonderland.” The pastor discerned right away that he was in the presence of two very hurting and compassionate parents.
It didn’t take long before he learned that this family had a son that had been drafted into the army and had been sent to Vietnam in early December of the previous year. When this happened, the boy’s mother had decided that until their son came home, one way or another, that tree was going to stay up and for three and a half years, that tree was in that front room lit up 24 hours a day.
She was determined to leave the lights on for there would be no real Christmas until everyone in the family was safe and sound and home where they all belonged.
When there is that much love in a relationship, leaving the light on is a no-brainer. And when the others had learned the real reason of the never ending Christmas, they became understanding and prayerful and supportive. And in the middle of a summer in the early 1970’s, reunion occurred and it was Christmas for everyone in that town. And nobody cared about the calendar. They were more concerned about the community in a family that was put back together again.
Leaving a light on really is at the heart of God’s behavior towards us. From the beginning of Scripture, in the Garden of Eden, when sin entered the world, God immediately said, “I have a plan. Somebody is coming in the future that will be able to overcome this incredible feeling of lostness that is churning deep inside of you. He will turn the light on not just for a day or for a month, but forever.
And in the Old Testament Book of Isaiah, the prophet wrote that the Lord’s people had stumbled around in a great darkness for long enough and soon there was coming a light. And on that first Christmas, Jesus, the light of the world, burst upon the scene and shattered the darkness. And His light still shines in God’s front window no matter what time of the year, inviting you back home with Him where you belong.
The door is unlocked. The lights are on. The neighbors can complain all they want, but God won’t take down Calvary’s Tree all lit up in the love of Jesus, right smack in heaven’s front window, until you walk into that front door and be reunited with the One who really loves you.
I want to close with the lyrics of the old Simon and Garfunkel song.
“Homeward bound, I wish I was, Homeward bound, Home where my thought’s escaping, Home where my music’s playing, Home where my love lies waiting, silently for me.”
What are you waiting for? You now know the rest of the story. God is shining his light for you! Are you going to get angry at somebody who loves you like that? He’s leaving the light on, you hear? He’s leaving the light on, you here?
Pastor Rudy shares his heart three times every weekend at The Lighthouse Church, 1248 Route 9, with Celebration Services on Saturday at 6 p.m. and Sundays at 9 and 10:45 a.m.