Multi-Colored Lights

December is a month that people associate with the days getting shorter, nights getting longer and both days and nights getting colder. The trees have lost their leaves (other than the red cedars) and everything in my flower beds quit growing in August. I can still see in my mind's eye the colors that used to be all around me. There isn't much to look at outside, it is drab and very colorless. But as the days pass, I start to see color everywhere again: Christmas lights!

I have a sweatshirt that says, "Christmas lights are my favorite color." I love multi-colored Christmas lights. I decorate our Christmas tree, inside our windows, our porch and around the roof line of our house. My next goal is to put Christmas lights up in the trees in our front yard. Some of the Christmas lights I see on houses, trees and around windows are all one color. It makes a pretty display, but, to me, not very exciting. I also feel the same way about fireworks in July. I love the ones that go up and explode into a mix of red, blue, yellow, green, orange, white, and purple. Those really make you oooh and ahhhh!

Multi-colored Christmas lights remind me of the busyness of the season. There is shopping, wrapping, baking, parties, family gatherings, school programs and sporting events. I know it can be overwhelming, but the busyness will pass and become the time to rest in January. The church is also a very busy place during this time with decorating, a Christmas concert, family night dinner and the Christmas Eve service. Some colors in the multicolored lights remind me of Advent. I relate green with Hope, blue with Peace, red with Joy and all the colors with Love. On Christmas morning, all people (of all colors) will worship the Newborn King.

So, whether your Christmas lights are all one color or many different colors, I hope you have a Merry Christmas.

--Tina