The ADVENTure of Christmas (7 of 12)

*I've moved, and my posts have come with me! Check out my new blog at www.jeffrey-davis.net/blog/*

Crap, missed a couple days of posts--note to self: don't ever choose a twelve part series again. In my defense, it is hard to blog during the weekend at the Davis' house. Who's to blame? A crappy dial-up connection that is a direct result of the shortage of companies who stand to challenge Comcast's monopoly (and prices that reflect it) on the high speed internet market in middle Tennessee. I have, however, recently discovered a 1 square foot area (literally) in our home in which I can jack into a neighbor's wireless connection--still at a low speed, but 10 times the speed of my dial-up connection nonetheless. Oh well.

We have a slight obsession here in the U.S. with covering our homes in an array of colored lights this time of year--and I'm probably the worst. But where did this obsession come from? Three years after Edison patented his invention of the lightbulb, Edward Johnson, a friend of his, was hanging strings of them on his Christmas tree. Thirteen years later, President Grover Cleveland lit up a huge Christmas tree at the White House. By the turn of the century, the craze had caught on with our country's retail developments.

It wasn't until after WWII, however, that American families could afford to decorate the roofs of their homes with these Christmas lights. Let the "war with the Jones'" feud begin. As a result, entire Midwestern neighborhoods became beacons of light for passing ships in the Gulf of Mexico.

As I sat late last month on my freshly illuminated front porch puffing on a pipe and enjoying my lighted handiwork, I began to ponder why I would take such an effort to ensure that every eave of my home was visible for 3 blocks. I came to unexpectedly enter into a wonderful time of conversation with my Creator-Savior there in the cold (aren't the best times with God almost always unexpected?). I petitioned my Father and Friend to use the glow of our home to make Himself known to my neighbors and the aimless wanderers who venture into our cul-de-sac.

What reason, if there is one, do you decorate your home this Christmas season?