When we built our house 15 years ago,  we realized almost immediately that the dimensions of our living room (two-stories tall) required us to have a much larger Christmas tree than the one we had …. or else we would be in danger of doing an inadvertent reenactment of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” year after year.   Our first 9-foot tree was big enough,  but hauling it up from the basement was a nightmarish ordeal,  thanks to how incredibly heavy and awkward it was.  (When I would finish hauling it up, I would be so scratched and bruised that I looked like I’d been in a bar fight.)  Six years ago – thanks to a half-price December 26th sale – we invested in a new tree that was much more natural-looking, much easier to move and assemble,  and …. much to my wife’s relief and joy …. pre-lit!  It has been illumining our Christmas season ever since.  I do remember the second Christmas we had it that we plugged in the lights with some trepidation, hoping that the bumpy ride up the stairs hadn’t shaken something loose or otherwise done something to screw up the lights.  But when we plugged the tree in, voila!  The lights were all on, as beautiful as the they were the year before.   And year after year, that’s continued to be the story.

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This year, because we were going to be leaving Christmas Day for our Disney Cruise,  we thought seriously about not putting up our tree ….  but at some point, both Kathy and I realized that leaving the tree in the basement until next Christmas would have felt just awful and strange.   So we hauled it up,  put it together,  and were delighted to have that beautiful, tall tree illuminated as always.  In a Christmas season in which we opted to leave most of our decorations downstairs- our snowmen, our Jim Shore figures, our Dickens Village houses, and almost a thousand other festive knickknacks- at least there was our tree, festooned with the colorful ornaments we’ve been gathering over the years.  (One of my favorite things to do during the holidays is to just sit next to the tree and look at the ornaments and try to remember where they came from – or from whom.  “That’s one of the ornaments that Kathy’s Grandma Gall made.” “We bought this Precious Moments ornament the first year we were married.” “That’s the first ornament Kathy’s dad carved for us.” “This is the rainbow ornament that my voice student J.D. gave me after his senior recital.” “This is the billiard balls ornament that Kathy hates, but which I had to buy because it was so colorful…” etc.

And then one day, about a week before Christmas, I walked into the living room and saw a sickening sight …. the lights on our tree were suddenly dark, except for about a dozen bulbs along the very bottom of the tree.  But the rest of the tree was shrouded in forlorn darkness. You can’t imagine how awful it looked, and it felt like a metaphor for how odd and stressful the holiday season had been for various reasons.

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Kathy was just as dismayed as I was, but the difference was that she had some idea of what to do about it – and by early evening,  we had replaced the blown fuse in the tree’s cord and were back in business!  Two days later, the fuse blows again, and we place it like we did the first one.  Less than a day later, you guessed it …  until we finally got some helpful advice with how we had the tree plugged in.  Once we had half the tree plugged into one outlet and the other half into another,  we were fine – and have been fine ever since.

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And I am really glad that we figured out what was ailing our Christmas tree lights, because if there was ever a winter when we needed that tree to be brightly lit, it was this one. Those nights when the temperature went down to 18 degrees below zero – and the wind chill was close to 40 below zero – we were grateful for a warm and secure house, a lovely gas fireplace,  and our beautiful Christmas tree, giving us warmth in so many ways.   And then someone said something that made me appreciate our tree even more.  Kari Gordon, a friend from when we both went to Luther, whose now a neighbor who lives five houses away from us ….  said something about how glad she was when we got our tree fixed because she enjoys looking over at our house from time to time and seeing it in the front window.  And it made me realize that there indeed is something reassuring about the sight of an illuminated, decorated tree in someone else’s house.   It’s as though we’re all trying to generate a little extra comfort and joy in the midst of winter’s cold.  And of course, it’s not just the Christian tradition that celebrates the miracle of light in the face of life’s cold darkness.  Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism,  Sikhism, and many more religions use light to symbolize life and hope.  And isn’t that what all of us hunger for?

Tonight as I finish this up several days after I began it, the temperature has warmed up a bit, but just enough so that we have freezing rain where once there was snow ….  and some of the most hazardous driving conditions of the entire season.  (I slid through two intersections on the drive home from Carthage.)  And with a voice student of mine up in Milwaukee tonight,  having to drive home on these treacherous roads,  winter feels just as unpleasant as it did when we were shivering in our drastic, dangerous deep freeze.   So I’m glad that our tree is still up – and that we can turn on its lights and bask in their warmth and be reminded on this dark, winter night that light – not darkness – has the last word.

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Thanks be to God.