Saturday, December 26, 2015

True Light

December 26, 2015

The gifts are not only opened, but assembled and operational, with the exception of the doorknob coat hangers I made for which Linda hasn't yet figured out where we have enough wall space to mount them. The excitement and frenzy of kids and grandkids opening their gifts has given way to a quiet weariness courtesy of all the hours of preparation and late-night celebrations.

Up until just a few moments ago, we were sitting in the dark. About an hour ago, the lights flickered and went out. We lit the kerosene lamps so she could read and I could write. It made me think about our dependency upon electricity. So much of how we live revolves around the harnessing of this power source. The first electric lights in the world, by the way, were lit about fifty miles north of us in Buffalo over a hundred years ago, due to the abundant hydro power of the Niagara River and Falls. Today most of the world's electricity comes from coal, oil, and gas which our government seems determined to end, at least for us. Where that power will come from in another hundred years is anyone's guess. Maybe we'll be back to living in evening semi-darkness, like our ancestors or the Amish.

The darkness isn't all bad. It sounds trite to say it, but it seemed to me that a quiet peace settled in as we sat in the dim light of those lamps. No television numbing our minds, no pressing tasks that couldn't wait (we couldn't see well enough to tackle any of them anyway!), no distractions of any sort; just a soft quiet. I wonder what we have lost with all the conveniences brought our way courtesy of electrical power. There is certainly an advantage to these conveniences. I would hate to have to saw by hand the lumber I have needed for various projects around here. The tile work in our entry room would have been pretty daunting without an electric tile saw. The meals Linda cooks would take much more of her day, and doing the laundry would be far more formidable than it is now. No TV, computers, internet, refrigerators, microwaves...Life would certainly be different.

But perhaps we wouldn't get so disconnected from one another. Maybe if tasks took longer, we would do more work together, and talk more in the process. Maybe if we sat less in front of a television and more in front of each other, we would grow deeper instead of just wider in the posterior. Maybe we would talk more and learn to love more. Maybe we would even pray more, and grow more like Christ. Strange that the light that has come into our lives has often kept us us from the greater Light that could change our lives for the better. Tonight, I am grateful for those moments of darkness that reminded me of how much better my life could be if I opted for the True Light instead of the copycat stuff offered by Mr. Edison.

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