In December 1995, God made a way for me to rent my own apartment again, and I moved to Temecula. It was the first time I would live alone away from relatives, only knowing a few friends. God planned this place to be my “nest to rest” for the next twenty years of driving hundreds of miles to Women’s Prisons. He would use me as a “light” wherever He sent me. It all began with a Christmas window.
From a child, I loved celebrating Christmas! After my divorce, I packed Christmas memories into boxes and left them in my parent’s garage. Ten years later, I was not prepared for the strange loneliness I felt looking out the windows of my new third-story-apartment. It did not feel like Christmas here at all. My grandchildren insisted on buying what they called a “Charlie Brown Tree” for Grandma. So for years, my little tree shined brightly high above the building-stairway. It was not fancy as in other apartments, just a “little tree of lights” shining in winter months.
One year, I did not buy a little tree. After one week, the Manager called to see WHY my window was dark and vacant? She said they would put a tree up for me if I was sick. Her words were: “Earlene, your little tree-lights are always shinning. I often look up at your window during the holidays…just to feel safe and loved.”
I realized on that Christmas how people are watching us. Jesus is the LIGHT of the world and JESUS lives in us. We can be the light of Christ in our world as we celebrate Christmas this year. His light will dispel darkness wherever it shines.
Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”–John 8:12–