Light up the Darkness.

I'm afraid of the dark. I always have been. I'm inwardly scared every time I shut up my chickens after the sun has gone down. But I do it every night, like a dare against my beating heart. I crane for little beady animal eyes glowing in the beam of my flashlight and thankfully I haven't seen anything other than my cat staring back at me.

Last night I went out with tangled strands of thrift store lights, big colored bulbs. The sun was setting as I plugged in the glowing colors, and the Mr. and I wrapped up the pine trees in front, and hung a swag of lights around the roof's edge. Why not make a tacky house a little tackier, right? It wasn't much, but as I stepped back into the dark of night when we'd finished, I realized how much the cheer of the lights replaced all my fear of the dark. I stood by those lights and felt nothing but childish excitement.

He does that; Jesus replaces my fear with His light. He replaces the darkness in my life with the light of Himself. For there is no darkness in Him. So, for day 1 of the December Photo Challenge (which I am not posting until day 3 owing to four sick children) I am thankful for this season of Light which began when the brightest of stars lit up the night sky.

^{Matthew 2
9} the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰ When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. ¹¹ On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him.

 
John12:46
I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. 

Today I was shown His love in a shining strand of colored lights. 

His light shines so much brighter.

Together in Grace, 
Amy