Light for the Journey

I've spent a bit more time than usual this morning getting the lighting right.

Normally just lifting the blinds and turning on the two lamps at the far end of the room is enough to balance out the lamp on my desk and the candle behind me on the mantle. I don't actually like working in harsh, bright lights anyways, so I'm okay with things being a little subdued.

But today it all just seems rather dull.

Probably doesn't help that the sun - wherever it is - didn't even rise until 7:50 this morning. We are heading into Winter Solstice after all, just two days away from the longest night of the year.

But also, there's the cloud cover. And yes - can I just say this? - I'm missing the goodness of the sunshine over the hills at Hot Springs.

Yay for an icing-sugar scattering of snow, though! Nothing to shovel here. Just a little nod to a whitish Christmas, for now.

And yay for the way the season has begun to settle some. For me at least. What I needed from December is beginning to manifest in things like mornings with the time and space to fiddle with the lighting, and to stop and be grateful for bright souls in my life.

That's what I've been thinking about as I looked for more candles and flipped a few switches. About all the ways light happens in life, especially when we hold up lights for each other. Specifically, all the ways people held up lights for me this year.

I'm not doing Christmas cards this year (something I'll stop apologizing for soon), but it strikes me that in some ways that tradition is also an opportunity to say thank you.

So, in place of writing it out and putting it in an envelope, and either handing it to you when I see you, or putting it in the mailbox...

Right here, on this really dull morning, I just want to express all the immense gratitude I have for all the bright lights in my life.

Every generous donation to matters dear to my heart, every word of encouragement, every message of love, every reorientation towards hope, every time you directed my eyes upward, every time you listened without judgement, every moment of your undivided attention, every bit of loving feedback and correction on sermons or writings or the ways I am conducting myself in community, every prayer lifted on my behalf....

All of that shines bright to light the journey for me.

So thank you.

And because of you, a dark day doesn't have to be a dark day, if you get what I mean.

Jesus said He was the light of the world. (John 8:12)
He also called us to be lights in this world. (Matthew 5:14-16).

So given Christmas is so close to the darkest day...
And given Christmas marks the birth of the Light...
Maybe it only makes sense that we look for ways shine all the brighter in each other's lives.
Right now, for the darker days.
And all year for all the days of the journey.

Thank you.
I mean it.
I could not have done this year without you.