December 12, 2008⏤Bright Light

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After I get all of the mutating missionary  blogs from the past re-posted here, I will continue writing fresh ones.  Enjoy the review...

Robyn Rochelle Cox
RR&BC, LLC©2016
Loving God in the Moment

Friday, December 12, 2008
Bright Light


Christmas in Germany is the highlight of the year. Almost every Stadt und Dorf (Town and Village) sets up a Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market) in a central area.

I drove to Mannheim last night to pick up a friend that needed a lift back down to this area... (a story all in itself)

While there, we decided to experience the Mannheim Weihnachtsmarkt, pick up some culturally unusual Christmas presents for my children and a few friends back home, and enjoy a wonderful mug of warm Gluehwein with a couple of friends.

The wind was cold, the air wet, and there was a hummm in the air. All of the Ferris wheels, the children's rides, the market booths had lights that were accenting the fest.

We drove to the center of town, found a parking spot, walked the entire area, bought really cool presents, looked at even more really cool artsy fartsy stuff, laughed, talked, and basically enjoyed the hubbub.

As the evening wore on, the crowds became thicker; we were ready to head home. It had been a fun night - but a bit tiring - for us all. With so many people, so much stimuli around, ones head gets a little bumfuzzled.


We piled back into the car. Driving south we inevitably came up on the snow I had left earlier that morning.

The wind picked up even more and the night became a white veiled sheath. We finally arrived back in my little area of Schwarzwald. I had the option of taking my last passenger/friend home or taking him up to see the heavier snowfall in my little mountain Dorf.

He opted to see the snow – no matter what the hour.

The Dorf was completely silent. Snow lay in 10 inch layers on the ground, and heavy layers on the evergreens and hardwoods. The town's white twinkling lights outlining the trees were everywhere. The quiet stillness, the light reflecting off the snowy branches, the snows purity on the hillside…it was all breathtaking. Later, I stopped several times just to breath it in.

Light.

Bright Light.

The lights at the Mannheim Weihnachtsmarkt were exciting. They flashed, they drew attention, and they created an expectancy, fun, frivolity. But the lights were dulled by the hubbub, the activity, the hustle, the bustle. They had their place - but one grew weary.

In the stillness of the night in my tiny kurort (health resort town), I found the tiny twinkling of lights wound within the white snow filled branches penetrating.

They shone in the night so bright. Nothing took away from their beauty. They were peaceful, calming, still. When I stopped, looked, I wanted to simply be. They were illuminating.

Illuminating. In the stillness of a tiny stable a baby who was Christ the King was born. The hubbub of the crowd was there. There was no more room for them in the Inn. But, in the stillness of a tiny stable/cave the Savior illuminated His earth.

And HIS Bright Light illuminates.

Il-lu-mi-nate (verb) [I loomi nayt] Definitions from Encarta English Dictionary

1. Shine light on somebody or something: to make somebody or something visible or bright with light, or be lit up

2. Decorate something with lights: to decorate something with lights for a celebration

3. Clarify something: to make something easier to understand

4. Cause somebody to look happy: to make something, especially somebody’s face, look happy and animated

5. Enlighten somebody: to provide somebody with knowledge or with intellectual or spiritual enlightenment

mutating missionary