City Lights

Today's Gospel is John 3:16-21 and in that passage so well known to so many is a word about what the judgment is to be:

And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.

That the judgment is light made me think about all the lights that go up all over town at this time of year.

And that made me think about all the heart rending rhetoric in December about how people don't remember "the reason for the season." I myself have been guilty of this too and maybe the real problem is that we don't look around and see just how many people understand the power of the light. I mean there are hundreds of homes just in our small city that are all decked out with lights of many colors and designs. Now I'm sure that some might say that has nothing to do with Christ or Christianity. But what about God's ability to use anything for the good?

Maybe God is using all those decked out homes to remind people of the power of light over dark. Perhaps when we see those holiday lights our hearts might just light up and we can see things in a new way. Couldn't it be that all those festive lights turn us toward forgiveness, love, joy, hope and all things blessed by God?

Or it could be that I'm just plain old silly in reading too much into all the lights around town. But then again, why not?