Warm Lights and Festive Drinks

Hello Friend,

I’m so glad you stopped by. I’ve been meaning to have you in for a warm festive drink.

I don’t have marshmallows for our hot chocolate, but whipped topping is ever so much nicer. Add a few sugary sprinkles on top and voila! The last word in festive drinks. It’s dessert!

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The world won’t get more or less terrible if we’re indoors somewhere with a mug of hot chocolate …

Kamila Shamsie

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I was up last night “in the wee hours,” as a friend calls them. Wide awake. So I sat up, switched on my bedside lamp, and pulled out my book. I was barely four pages into the chapter, and just finding out what happened to Peggy, when there was a little spark, and my Lamp. Went. Out.

As I sat there in the pitch dark I had two thoughts:

1. Wait, what happened to Peggy?
2. Wow. This is very dark.

I dug in a drawer for a book light – you know, the kind that clips on to your book so the little light shines over your page. Well, it sputtered and faded in and out, but I persevered through all of that to finish the chapter and see Peggy to the other side of her troubles.

It’s amazing the difference a tiny light can make, even when it sputters and fades.

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I’ve been thinking a lot about light lately. Maybe it’s the time of year: where I live it starts getting dark at about 4:30 in the afternoon, and we’re switching on our lights much earlier.

Or maybe it’s the season. As we get closer to Christmas, people are putting lights on their houses, lighting Christmas trees. City streets are being lit up with Christmas decorations. I put up some twinkle lights in the bookshelves of my newly rearranged study.

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I think it has more to do with what’s going on in the world right now, though. Things are pretty dark. Life feels heavy. It’s like the light is going out all over.

In our province, new restrictions were put in place this week. It is now definite that we won’t be having kids and grandkids come to stay for Christmas. In other provinces, households are restricted to their own household as well. It’s not the Christmas we hoped we’d have.

Yet, I still see little lights everywhere.

When The Cowboy shovels a neighbour’s driveway. When a stranger out walking her dog calls hello from the other side of the street. When the barista says, “This one’s on me,” with a smile wide enough to reach the eyes above her mask.

Lights of kindness, of goodness. Of faith, hope, and charity.

Maybe you think your light is going out. It’s sputtering and fading. But, could it be just enough light to brighten the path of someone else whose own light is dim? All alone, our little lights barely twinkle, but together we can illuminate a room, a neighbourhood, a city.

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Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Matthew 5:16

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My thoughts turn to Christmas. A Christmas made more quiet, more still than past years, perhaps. But not more dark. The Christ of Christmas reminds us that no matter how dark the world may seem, the Light has Not. Gone. Out.

Thanks for visiting today, it was lovely to have you. Bye for now, and stay safe out there.

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“I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.”

John 8:12

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Featured  Image by congerdesign from Pixabay.

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