Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: Christmas Lights (10/30/08)
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TITLE: Light of the Heart | Previous Challenge Entry
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11/01/08 -
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“Hey Mike, Let’s double date with Susie and Janet this Friday and take in the Christmas lights at Lake Lanier? Let me know if this is a work in progress?”
“Buddy, I know Susie really digs Christmas lights. She’ll go for it. Just get an A-OK from Janet and we’ll go.”
As the weekend rolled around to Thursday our perfect double date was lined up. I had known Janet for two months and we were already a common topic in the halls of Collins Hill High School. We had met after a football game. I thought she was wonderful, exciting, and beautiful.
She acted as if nothing could separate us. She was always warm, caring, and full of fun. Our difficulty came when we talked about religion. Her family, just her mother and herself were not open to Jesus Christ. My family, with my father, mother, and two younger sisters worshipped regularly.
As the weeks passed, Janet and I realized our relationship was tottering over our different religious views. Janet believed in Christ, but was very wary of anyone sounding “preachy”. I fully believed and studied the Bible daily.
I talked with Mike and Susie about my concern about Janet’s religious beliefs. Both of them seemed perplexed and offered no advice. They thought she would see the light after awhile.
As the night for our double date approached, my mother won four tickets to see the Lake Lanier lights on the night of our double date. My father was out of town on business. Grandmother Nell, my father’s mother, was visiting us from Minnesota and we didn’t know how long she would last. She was practically confined to a wheel chair and needed help getting in and out of a car. My mother was excited about the prospect of taking Nell to see the lights. She knew how much the lights meant to her.
Explaining the situation to Mike, Susie, and Janet wasn’t too hard. I gave up my ticket and Janet said, “I’ll find someone else. Maybe, I’ll see you on Saturday.”
Resentful, disgusted, and angry, I dutifully got Nell into the car and drove my mother, Nell, and Mary up to Lake Lanier, a distance of 40 miles. My thoughts were about how I disappointed Janet and why I had to drive Nell in our family car to see some stupid lights. Anybody could drive the car, but getting Nell in and out of the car was an issue. Resigned, I accepted my responsibility, knowing this might be one of our last Christmas’s with Nell.
Nell didn’t say much when she first got in, however within a few miles she began to smile and talk, “Christmas lights bring such joy. Each little light helps represent the truth in Jesus Christ. The lights are decorations we make to celebrate the season. We let each other know the truth we find in Jesus Christ. These lights help us unite our hearts to God and each other. There are a million lights just like there are a million people with a light inside each one of us.”
I looked at the spectacle of lights as we slowly drove along the beautiful fifty foot statues of lights. I could make out Christmas Trees, reindeer, Santa, elves, Frosty the Snowman and a manger with the baby Jesus.
My mother asked Nell, “Does any Christmas time really strike you right now?”
Nell, with her head turned to the window, replied, “This is the best Christmas, Audrey. You see, I’m so grateful there is love, truth, and caring in our family. We are all together and we love one another. If our light goes out then we are here to turn the light back on.”
I looked at Mom, she looked at me, and Mary gave Mom a hug on the shoulders from the back seat.
Mary said, “I hope we all have Christmas’s this beautiful, forever. Thank you for being with us this year, Nell.”
After I had gotten Nell into the house, I walked over to my friend’s house and to check on Mike and Susie. Outside, under a large oak tree, Janet was kissing and hugging another date, my replacement.
I quickly walked back to my home, a house full of love, warmth, and light.
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