Christmas lights

I’ve always liked Christmas lights. Especially many-colored lights. Particularly against a dark background. The twinkling effect of many small colored lights against a night sky, or on a dimly-lit street is quite striking.

I realized this again this past week as I was walking to the store. The street wasn’t well-lit, and the house was just lit by the colored lights. Each bulb was small, and not very powerful.

But taken together, against the darkness of the surroundings, they were very effective.

Of course, I started thinking deeper than the science of light and electricity. You may already have arrived at the same point I arrived at:
• White is a fine color, but the variety of different colors adds so much more flavor. So it is with each of us. Our style, our theology, our gifts. And you probably remember your elementary science—put all of these colors together, and you get white light. So it is in God’s Kingdom. It takes the combined force of all of our differences to begin to adequately reflect the white of God’s light. Individually, we are just a part—and each part is necessary to make a complete whole.
• Lights are most visible and useful against the darkness. You probably don’t have your outdoor Christmas lights on during the day, because no one would see them anyway. But at night, they shine brightly. So it is with us. Although we love to hang out in church with all of the other similar sources of light, we are most effective when we shine where things are dark.
• It doesn’t take a powerful wattage in order to make inroads against the darkness. Even if you think you aren’t very bright, get out there and shine!