Stringing Christmas lights atop one's house is a young man's game. At least it should be.So what was I, at my venerable age, doing yesterday afternoon on the roof? Worse yet, what was I doing at the pinnacle of a borrowed (and bowed) extension ladder, leaning over the overhang and nailing in a new hook at the very peak of the house?
Crazy. But what the spirit of Christmas motivates us to do!
I haven't actually finished with the outside. I still need to put up the creche figures, the lights around the trees and the huge wreath on the garage. (The photo here is from last year.) But the daunting task, that squirrel-like activity on the ladder, is done. I may well stay so deeply into the Christmas spirit even after Epiphany that those doggone lights will just stay where they are!
My neighbors' houses (and, in a few cases, their yards too) are aglow with Christmas cheer. That's nice. But, of course, it can create some peer pressure too. Remember John Grisham's Skipping Christmas? Our first Christmas here, our house was the most decorated on the block but that's now changed. In fact, a couple of our neighbors seem to have joined in a good-natured competition and each year their contest adds a bit more to the electric glow surrounding their homes.
Claire and I like it...even though our house is next in line to the two competitors. The big garage wreath will be our only "upgrade" this year. And it doesn't even light up. No, we like things colorful but rather simple and sitting back from the street like our house does (unlike all of our neighbors), our decorating scheme is just right for us.
The other point of interest in our outdoors display is the nativity, a really rare thing in our neighborhood. And that, of course, is just one sad sign of how other things have stolen center stage from Jesus' birth. There's candles and Santas and polar bears and snowflakes and deer and elves and Disney characters and wrapped presents and angels and penguins and lampposts and gingerbread men and child carolers and toys and sleighs and snowmen and snow queens and skaters and "holiday trees" aplenty -- but the miraculous, monumental event of the Savior's advent is pushed to the periphery. If it is allowed a place even there.
But it isn't the world's place to put Jesus in the picture. That's the responsibility of the Christian. So when we can do it with seasonal decorations, great. But our responsibility to "let our light so shine before men in such a way that they may see our good works, and glorify our Father who is in heaven" -- well, that's a year round responsibility and involves our entire lifestyle.
Keeping Christ in Christmas is a big job and a very important one. But bigger and more important still is keeping Christ enthroned in our hearts every day.
