Twinkle Lights

If our dog Spense would tolerate it, he’d be wearing them too.

They are not too glaring, not too faint. And in our house they are everywhere: on a jade plant, on a fig tree, along the entry hall. I’ve only stopped with my bedecking of all things in twinkle lights because we ran out of AAA batteries.

While retail stores play “We Need a Little Christmas” I’m thinking more along the lines of “I need a few more twinkle lights.”

For Christians, this is a season when we acknowledge that there is a darkness only God can overcome.

As far as light shows go, I’m a huge fan and that goes for many of us. Festivals of Light abound throughout the world in both spiritual and secular contexts:

• The Hindu festival of Diwali involves conquering darkness with light.
• The Jewish celebration of Hanukkah recalls when a single jar of oil lasted eight days so that the Jews could rededicate the temple in Jerusalem.
• Loi Krathong involves floating a small basket of lights down a river to thank the goddess of water in Thailand and other Southeast Asians countries. This festival is often celebrated along Yee Peng when latterns are released into the skies as believers ask for forgiveness of past sins.
• Winter Illuminations is a festival in Japan to remember the 1995 Kobe earthquake.
• Kwanzaa requires the lighting of a single candle each night for a week to lift up seven common principles of African American culture.

Seriously, there are literally hundreds of light shows out there.

We like our light festivals for many reasons and one is that they are pretty and awe-inspiring. And there is religious significance – although sometimes it’s mostly about the beauty.

I need beauty right now.

Yes, Jesus is returning according to the liturgical calendar and we Christians are recalling that The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. And there is sorrow and distress and something new to worry about called Omicron. And Stephen Sondheim is dead.

And if you, too, need beauty and you aren’t sure that even God can help, please look for the twinkle lights. They will be subtle, but they are popping up all around us. Yes, they make things appear more magical, and there is also a promise attached that goes far beyond commercialism. The promise is that there is hope even when we don’t see it. Hope is more like a flicker than a blinding torch. It’s easy to miss it when it comes in twinkle form but it’s out there and in here.

May something twinkle with light in your life today.