23Dec/091
Christmas Lights
The following is from my first guest blogger to this site. My daughter wrote this for an essay for school. Merry Christmas.
Christmas Lights, what do you think of when you hear those two words? Do you think of hours and hours of detangling coil after coil after coil? Or does the numbing cold wind cut through your mind, the one that stings the toes and bites the nose and blows strands of plastic holiday cheer right off the treeIs it those neighbors with their electrifying display of gaudy reindeer, garish Santa Clauses and their flamboyant and ever so gigantic blow up Snoopy? (What does he have to do with Christmas anyway? At least why do we only put him in our yards on Christmas? Why don’t we stick goggles and an aviator hat on him and plant him in a pumpkin patch for Halloween or place him in the yard with lawn chairs and a picnic table on Thanksgiving? But I digress…) I know what you think of when you hear the words ‘Christmas lights.” You re-live that victorious moment when you accomplished the feat of stringing synthetic luminescence all around the roof only to have one tiny cheep plastic bulb to burn out causing the entire display to conceal their flames.
But do you think of magic? Do you see the hopeful flicker of loveliness glistening out of the black night and exclaim, “Beautiful?” My Brother does. Up until a few weeks ago, he never heard of Christmas lights. He’d never heard of Christmas. Can you imagine that? In books you always read about little orphans who at least dream of the holiday, it gives them something to believe. It gives them hope. But my little brother had never even heard of this magical day.
Looking at the piles of Christmas lights waiting to hang gracefully off the tree like diamonds on the most majestic queen, my brother saw magic for the first time in his life. He turned to my mother and said in his adorable Chinese accent, “I love these Christmas lights! This is going to be so cool!” And it will be cool, my boy. In fact it will be amazing.
My Brother has never seen Christmas before. He’s never experienced the joy of the holidays, never known that Rudolph has a shiny nose, “like a light bulb,” and he has never felt the peace of knowing that Jesus rests in a manger and “All is Well.”
He was born just outside of Beijing, China. Just a peaceful baby boy who would soon be parentless. My brother ended up at the Bao-Ding orphanage that summer. Who knows why? All we know is that it was the beginning of his long journey home. Our family was looking for a new little brother. Our quest per-say took my parents on an 18 hour flight to China, to fulfill a destiny of compassion and love. Armed with suitcases, Oreos and plenty of hugs and kisses they changed the life of the most wonderful skinny little four-year old in the world. We were his Christmas lights.
I never fully realized just how much I took for granted until I saw my brother’s face as he exclaimed, “Look! Christmas lights!” There’s so many little things that we can barely imagine not having as a part of our lives. M&Ms, toothbrushes, tennis shoes, Christmas lights… Things that people everyday are making do without. We live in such a blessed country. There’s a lot that we take for granted.
And there’s a lot that we can do to bless someone else’s life. Like Christmas lights we may be weather worn, dim or even burnt out sometimes. But each one of us can, in our own way, brighten someone’s world. There are people living in darkness who can’t even imagine the beauty we have: like a person living the in driest Sahara who can’t even imagine the great migration of the soft, cool, white butterflies we call snow, like someone in a third-world country whose mouth is parched for water never dreaming about the deep pristine waters of Lake Michigan, like someone who’s never seen Christmas lights.
We can be lights to people in our own ways: giving money, speaking, and standing up for a cause. But we can shine in small ways too: a smile, a word of affirmation, giving love to someone, giving compassion to a little child, or just spending time with people. We can be Christmas lights to someone, shining Christ's light through the dark. All year we can illuminate the world one bulb at a time. How are you going to shine?
January 15th, 2010 - 11:23
I just re-read Evanne’s article on Christmas Lights. How could I have not commented on that beautiful piece of work. How could anyone who read it not commented on it. I guess not many realized it was written by a 15 year old! Well I will now comment: What a beautiful person Evanne is and is becoming. It must be hard not to be very proud of her. Well, as Grandma, it isn’t hard for me, I will say it “I’m so amazed and proud of her.” N