As a small child, I was often sent by my mother to a neighbor’s house to borrow a couple of eggs or a cup of sugar or to repay such. Neighbors did that often in those days. This embedded in my little mind what is now an interesting and amusing story about Christmas.
The Dillard house did not have electricity until my early teens. Neither was there running water or any indoor plumbing, but that was common in the country. (I know, you are thinking of stories of the embellishment of tougher times, but hang on). When Christmas time came one year, we did the usual: cut a small cedar tree, strung popcorn, and cut ornaments from colored construction paper, and somehow managed to acquire icicles to complete the decorations (No, there was no “Good night, John, Boy!”)
Our neighbor up the road had recently gotten electricity. They had a beautiful tree with bubbling lights. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, and it was hard to get me away from staring at it for the longest time. Then one day it hit me. Perhaps we could borrow some electricity for our tree. After all, we borrowed and lent other things often. So, I appeared at the neighbor’s door: a four year old lad with a large paper sack. I proudly announced to the kind neighbor lady that I wanted to borrow a sack of electricity so we could have a pretty Christmas tree. She was so taken aback by the request that she became speechless. How could she tell me that she could not lend me a sack of electricity? Well, we survived that year with our homely decorated tree, and in time we, too, had electricity.
Such memories of childhood are vivid, and presently the source of amusement, but though deprived of electricity, we were not deprived of the meaning of Christmas. Love lived in our little country home, and gifts were more often “a gift,” but the Gift of God lived in the hearts of all the family who were old enough to understand, and in appropriate time, all of the family.
We were never devoid of the truly important light. “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men!” John 1:4. Moreover, “. . .God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all!” I John 1:5. What kind of light is prominent in your home this Christmas, electric or divine? If it is only the former, then I pray your heart may be opened and receptive to the true light of heaven and earth!
FOR THOUGHT: It is easy to be amused over a child now understanding why electricity cannot be borrowed, but what about adults thinking spirituality can be given them by neighbors or some minister or church? Only a personal connection with God can produce spirituality. Is that not why Jesus came into the world?