I am on light bulb patrol…
First the bulb in a garage door opener stopped working…
Then the pantry went dark….
Next my desk lamp burned out…
Then the bedroom closet light…
Finally, the light over the cooktop…
Just when I think one more bulb can’t possibly burn out…
My wife walks into the room.
“By the way,” she says, “There’s a burned-out light in the basement.”
Time to get the light bulbs…
Time to get the step stool…
Time to wonder about the answer to that old question…
“How many people does it take to change a light bulb?”
It has been suggested that I am the person about whom that question was written.
Wait… before you laugh…
Changing a light bulb isn’t always easy!
Consider what happened when I replaced this year’s crop of burned out bulbs…
“Which bulb should I replace first?” I wondered.
Why not the light over the cook-top?
I mean…
Food is important.
Not to suggest I’m focused on food…
But…
Who wants to miss a meal?
I reach up to unscrew the bulb.
It won’t budge.
I turn harder.
No movement.
One more try…
And it breaks.
In a million pieces…
Leaving the base stuck in the socket.
Trying to figure out why the bulb is stuck…
I bend over backwards so that I am looking directly up at the bulb…
Two things happen…
-
My wife walks through the kitchen… Sees me… Laughs… and keeps walking.
-
Looking at the bulb from this upside-down, backwards position…I realize my mistake.
I was turning the bulb in the wrong direction.
Go ahead…
Laugh.
You’re on the other side of the computer screen.
I won’t know.
I could continue to regale you with stories of my light bulb changing prowess….
Of almost falling off the ladder…
Of putting a bulb in a fixture…
Replacing the cover…
Flipping the switch…
Only to find that I had put back the burned-out bulb.
I could share those stories…
But I won’t.
As I face the annual onslaught of burned-out bulbs…
I wonder…
Why do our bulbs burn out every October?
Could it be because we moved into this house eighteen years ago…
In October?
A long-ago event…
Setting up a pattern that seems to last forever…
A pattern of fading light…
A pattern that requires annual effort on my part.
How like…
Yet how dissimilar…
From another event.
An event that brought the eternal light of grace into the world…
Light that will shine forever…
Light that does not require effort on our part….
But belief…
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
Belief in Him who is the true light of the world…
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12
Whose light can never be extinguished…
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:5
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