I love the festivity of the Christmas season. All of it! The decorations, gifts, and the greeting cards arriving in the mail. Carols, musical performances, and special church services we attend. Parties, dinners, and the baked goodies friends bring to our front door. But most of all, I love the lights. Every evening as dusk falls, lights flicker on throughout our neighborhood. Beautiful displays on neighbor’s porches, roofs, and lawns, proclaim to the world that it’s time to remember Christ’s birth.

       As a child, raised in a mission boarding school in Nigeria, December meant flying home for a month’s vacation. Indescribable joy bubbled up inside me at the thought of once again living with my parents, brothers, and sister for weeks on end. Enjoying backyard potlucks with missionary families. Singing Christmas carols under lights strung from branches of frangipani trees. Inviting guests for dinner, ice cream, and board games. Best of all, our two-foot Christmas tree stood tall on a wobbly card table by the window, its lights twinkled extra-brightly as they glinted off the long strands of silver tinsel.

       Every year, I appreciate the significance of the pageantry of Christmas even more. Our celebrations are an important way we demonstrate mankind’s joy at the birth of Jesus two thousand years ago.

       Gifts we offer to others illustrate what a treasure this Babe in the manger was. Deity clothed in humanity. God joined with us in our daily lives. Salvation provided from sin and death.

       Gatherings of family and friends depict the loving relationship between God and his children. The joyful fellowship of believers. The unique companionship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

       The bright displays represent the host of angels lighting up the night sky for shepherds on the Bethlehem plains. Celestial brilliance breaking through the darkness. Heralding the birth of Christ. Hinting of the beauty of heaven.

       Jesus declared that he is the Light of the World. In heaven, we will need no “light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give [us] light” (Rev 22:5). We have this sure hope: One day we will live with God in our magnificent forever home, because of Christ’s ultimate sacrifice on the cross for us.

       Today, God’s glory still visits our world and his love fills our hearts, even during difficult times. Every day of the year. In every corner of our lives. Not just in the lights and tinsel at Christmas.