Notes from Jan

The Light’s Always On

November 12, 2020

They’re up! I spotted some Christmas lights in Essex and I couldn’t be happier. Really. Usually I’m a holdout on Christmas music until the evening or day after Thanksgiving. Same goes for decorating. But not this year. I crave all the carols and color possible.

A good number of years back, Motel 6 teamed up with the down home voice of Tom Bodett to deliver seven of my favorite words from a commercial. “We’ll leave a light on for you.” Those few words transformed an ordinary motel into a beacon of home.

These days there’s a lot of darkness and not just because daylight savings time took its usual vacation, much to my dismay. It’s the pandemic and politics and the cumulative effect of living with lies and the loss of trust. We need the lift of light.

So, lets take a deep breath, which in itself is a gift. Christmas is coming and it’s the season when we celebrate Light. And I’m not just talking about the lights we wrap about trees. This Light wraps around us, to warm, illumine and lead us Home.

Two thousand years ago when Jesus, the Light of the world showed up, it was really dark. But for some, like now, they’d gotten used to it or were too bowed down by care and fear to lift their heads or hope again.

Still, God slipped in through a baby’s cry that shattered the darkness and for the few who followed, then saw the Light, introduced them to their Savior. And in that place of sacred stench and holy misfits,”the hopes and fears of all the years” met and hope won.

Seems like God’s not as picky about people or places as we tend to be. And loves to show up where or when least expected but most needed.

Like now.

The Light’s on.

Always.

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9 Comments

  • Reply Sue Andringa November 12, 2020 at 10:41 pm

    Love this, Jan ! I’m with you!! ❤️

  • Reply Caroline B Stogrin November 13, 2020 at 12:21 am

    Wow, Jan! Thank you! We need this right now more than ever!

  • Reply Heidi Stern Bunce November 13, 2020 at 6:05 am

    Such good medicine for my soul this morning. Thank you Jan!!!

  • Reply Raquel November 13, 2020 at 6:17 am

    Dearest mamaJan, THANK YOU! You brighten our lives with your beautiful way of writing stories while reminding us that our God is a God of hope! Let your light shine more than ever! Love you always, R.

  • Reply dale November 13, 2020 at 8:46 am

    Thanks Jan,

    Light is wonderful for showing the way, but it also exposes the dirt in its beam. I am praying all Christ-followers will decide to clean up their act first so we can be ministers of reconciliation (light).

    Love, Dale

  • Reply Valerie McCoy November 13, 2020 at 10:32 am

    Oh so beautiful Jan! I, for one, as a “holy misfit” need to brighten my outlook anew. And hopefully, since cataract surgery last week, there will be no mistaking my holy clarity.
    Much love to you!

  • Reply David L Smith November 13, 2020 at 10:37 am

    …the lights are on…and Somebody is home!

  • Reply Wendy November 14, 2020 at 11:57 am

    I’m with you Jan! We need the light of Christ more than ever. We have so much hope we need to shine wherever we can. <3

  • Reply Marianne November 14, 2020 at 6:40 pm

    How lovely, Jan. “God slipped in through a baby’s cry.” Our family is celebrating God through our new, first grandaughter born on October 20th in Stonybrook, New York. She joins her two brothers Thomas and Ellie and her two cousins Jackson and Conaill. God leads us to His Light.
    Marianne Cannon

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