Twinkling Lights

I have lots of lights in my Christmas decor this year -- white lights on the tree, colored lights in the living room and blinking colored lights in the kitchen. (Yes, I decorate my kitchen.)

I love Christmas lights. When I was a child I would sit at the foot of our live Christmas tree and watch the "bubble lights" start to boil. I was also accustomed to LARGE Christmas bulbs and not today's mini-lights. The large bulbs would get pretty hot. My mother was always worried that the tree would catch fire from the heat. The tree was covered with the afore mentioned colored bulbs, bubble lights and other lights that were in the share of snowmen, houses and Santa Claus. We also had small metal reflectors that would sit under the bulbs. The reflectors shimmer and enhance the light of the colored bulbs.

Our Christmas bulbs were always stored upstairs in the attic. They rested in old faded boxes that at one time contained fancy chocolates, linens or (surprise) Christmas lights. Annually, we would search through the boxes, untangle the cords and test the lights for the tree.

My dad liked to turn off all the other lights in the living room where our Christmas tree was displayed and enjoy the room being lit by a couple hundred twinkling lights.

Light is a symbol of hope. Lighthouses guide ships to shore. Candles burn in memory or in honor of someone. The lights on a Christmas tree are equally hopeful. They are welcome bright spots in the midst of a cold and sometimes dark winter season. Light is hope in the dark spots of life -- loneliness, injustice, sadness, loss. Light can show us a way out of the darkness or be a source of illumination in the middle of darkness, like the lit Christmas tree in the middle of a dark room.