A friend of a friend recently handed me some of the light bulbs from the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree in New York City (gathered in 2022). I guess certain people get to take the bulbs off and keep them because they don’t reuse them anymore… That does sound wasteful and yet I get it because they they probably need to make it VERY easy on themselves every year to light up the beautiful tree. 

It’s cool to go see it but there are so many activities at Christmas that I don’t really need to go see the tree. There are big trees here too. My friend who recently passed wanted to go see it before Christmas, asked if I was going, but I wasn’t. I am now GLAD that I DIDN’T take her. What? Would I wished to have taken her? Nah, I am thankful for not being a part of weakening her any more than she was. It was like a God thing that stopped me one trip short of guilt. The tree is cool, don’t get me wrong, but God is COOLer. God is All in All. God is in control.

This is all hindsight conjecture of course, and even if we had gone, I’m trusting God in His wisdom would have helped… But anyway I’m glad we didn’t go. I’m also glad that my friend had an “ordinary” day that day she passed, and before that a real and regular Christmas with her family that was distanced 3 weeks prior from her passing.

I am glad that she held her faith to the world like a light in the dark. See, we didn’t need to see Christmas lights as much as her and us being witness Lights! 

The bulbs are cool, but the only thing I can think to do with them is somehow to bring them to her gravestone…  I know of all things, God wants us to carry on, to shine the Light while we make do, to be faithful and true. 

I know God is the best Light. Through us, His Light shines TRUE.

Amen