How do you put Christ at the CENTER of Christmas? How do you keep Jesus the REASON for the season?
We love to decorate our house for Christmas. Inside & out, it’s completely transformed. Sometimes I swear we need a PODS storage unit just to hold all of our Christmas stuff.
- Inside = snowmen, garland with lights, trees, animated fiber-optic Christmas village, etc.
- Outside = Entire yard covered in lights. Featuress Icicle motion lights, Twinkle lights on trees, inflatables, Snowflakes, Candy Canes, etc. We even have Santa pulling reindeer skiers on a lake of lights, It is an all-LED display that we spend a couple weeks on.
Our display is so crazy, we even had to add extra outlets just to make sure we had enough ‘juice’ to power our yard. It just may be one of the FEW SITES VISIBLE from OUTER SPACE.
Well, a couple years ago, a storm came through town and the rain tripped all the breakers except one.
Sometimes, God has a way of reminding us of what’s most important. In the light of the illuminated Nativity, we made two observations:
- We couldn’t believe how BRIGHT it was when NOTHING ELSE was lit.
- We couldn’t believe how much it STOOD OUT when we removed all the CLUTTER.
Now, we actually rig up our lights differently. Today, each dimmer is timed to turn off so that eventually, each night, only the nativity is lit two hours longer than the rest.
One of my favorite verses of the Christmas story, is when the angel appeared to Joseph and said:
Matthew 1:21 (NIV) She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
This is a simple reminder not only that Jesus came into the world, but that he gave his life for our sins. That is the reason for the season.
Dennis Bloodworth 