Just Shine

My favorite part of the Christmas season is, I believe, the lights. (Lights are very noticeable here right now because this is our fourth day in a row of drizzle and fog in Georgia.) Our Christmas tree is covered in tiny multi-colored and white lights. Across the buffet, entertainment center, fireplace mantle, front door and stair railing, five strings of white lights are entwined in evergreen swags. (Here's where I admit I wanted to not do all the lights this year, but Mike convinced me to - he is SO right some times.)
Like the proverbial "candle in the window", Christmas lights call me to hope. Think about it, most of the lights we decorate with, (leaving off the over-achievers, like Clark Griswold) don't really provide illumination, direction, instruction, or safety like most of the lights in our lives.
They just are.
Once in place, Christmas lights may twinkle, but there isn't great movement. They have one purpose - Shine. We may imbue them with additional purposes - provide joy for the kids, impress our neighbors, put up a brave front, hide confusion and sadness, express our delight and faith. But they really only do one thing - shine.
Sometimes I want to be so many things, to so many people. But maybe what I need to do most of all is just shine. Provide hope, not because of anything I do or am, but because of whose light I carry.
Just shine.