We have an incredible group of neighbors. Doesn’t everyone? I suspect not, but here we have enjoyed a great relationship with most of our neighbors ever since we moved here. The first winter after we moved to Florida from Ohio, I had an encounter that literally changed our lives and our neighborhood.
It was not long after Thanksgiving and before Christmas. I cannot remember what I was doing. But one evening I happened to be outside in front of our home (in the “warm, December weather”), when I noticed one of our neighbors, a widow who was a seasonal resident in the neighborhood, outside her home and attempting to string up some outside Christmas lights. Now she was not doing anything too complicated, just one string of multi-colored lights along the short fence in front of her house, but she seemed to be having some difficulty with them, so, being the hopefully good neighbor that I am, I offered to help her. Dottie looked over at me, thanked me for my offer, politely declined my offer to help, and then said, “You know, it would be nice and neighborly if the people who lived here all the time would put up some lights on their homes as well. It would make this street real attractive during the Christmas season.”
That comment struck a nerve within me, and although we did not do anything that first Christmas season, every year since then we have dutifully put up a display of exterior lights out on our front lawn. What is most amazing is that Dottie surely must have said the same thing to several of our other neighbors because they have done so as well. Our street now is one of the best, most tastefully decorated streets in our community.
That neighborly endeavor has sparked a question in my mind: Why do we put up Christmas lights on the outsides of our homes during this time of the year anyway? It is an interesting question, isn’t it? Is there some deeper significance to our spending a lot of money and time and effort in “dressing up” the outsides of our homes, especially during this one season of the year?
I must say, my research on this subject was less than impressive. It seems there are almost as many theories about the origins of Christmas lights on the outsides of our homes as there are lights on Clark Griswold’s home in “Christmas Vacation.” Those origins ranged from an old Norse tradition to a German one to a North Pole one. Yes, I did find a source that said that the reason for Christmas tree lights on the outsides of our homes was to so distinguish our homes from our neighbors’ homes so that Santa Claus would not overlook stopping at our homes on Christmas Eve. Really?
But I did come across the story of a neighborhood that came up with a very good reason and a result that arose out of a neighbor’s compassion for his friend:
“It started in November with a single string of Christmas lights on a Baltimore County street. Kim Morton was home watching a movie with her daughter when she received a text from her neighbor who lives directly across the road. He told her to peek outside.
Matt Riggs had hung a string of white Christmas lights, stretching from his home to hers. He also left a tin of homemade cookies on her doorstep. The lights, he told her, were meant to reinforce that they were always connected.
Riggs said, “I was reaching out to Kim to literally brighten her world.” He knew his neighbor was facing a dark time. Morton had shared that she was dealing with depression and anxiety. She was also grieving the loss of a loved one and struggling with work-related stress. The mounting pressure led to panic attacks.
A bit of brightness was in order, he decided, but he certainly did not expect that his one strand of Christmas lights would somehow spark a neighborhood-wide movement. In the days that followed Riggs’ light-hanging gesture, neighbor after neighbor followed suit, stretching lines of Christmas lights from one side of the street to the other.
When Leabe Commisso, who lives on the other end of the block, saw what Riggs had done, she wanted in. She said, to her neighbor, “Let’s do it, too. Before we knew it, we were cleaning out Home Depot of all the lights.”
Quickly, other neighbors caught on. Kim said, “Little by little, the whole neighborhood started doing it. The lights were a physical sign of connection and love.”
She and Riggs were stunned to see neighbors with drills and ladders, up on their rooftops and tangled in trees, doing whatever they had to do to hang the lights. For the first time in a long time, a feeling of togetherness—and light—had returned.
Riggs said, “What blows my mind is that it was all organic. It just happened. There was no planning. It just grew out of everybody’s desire for beauty and joy and connection.”
But the impromptu effort has perhaps had the most profound impact on the person for whom it was originally intended. Kim said, “It made me look up, literally and figuratively, above all the things that were dragging me down. It was light pushing back the darkness.”
My friends, Jesus is the Light of the world. And whoever follows Him shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life. (John 8:12). Whether you put up outside lights on your home or your neighbor’s home, or not at all, if you turn to Him, Jesus will light up your life! Won’t you trust Him today?
God bless…
Chuck Tabor is a regular columnist for this newspaper and a former pastor in the area. He may be reached at [email protected].
