From "Lady on the Street" to "Friend of the Family"

What moves us from lighting and holding the candle, adorning its beautiful flicker, to actually BRINGING the light to where it is needed most?

How do we go from Christmas Eve - the beauty, the music, the garland, the practice of Holy Communion, the red sweaters and ties, the dinner with family and friends - the magnificence of it all - to a dark, cold night, where light is desperately needed?

What prompts us to go forth with that candle- so many of us lit up on Christmas Eve - and to step out of our church building, lifting that candle high in a place where it is dark and dreary, and no one wants to go, except called-by-God, risk-taking-Christians who are trying to be the heart of Jesus on our streets?

What prompts you and I to leave behind the beautiful, the fear of the unknown, and the (un)comfortable pew behind and hit the roads outside of our buildings, our homes, and our places of work?

Friends, we do not light those pretty candles on Christmas Eve to decorate our own warm and cozy homes.  We light those candles to then take them forth - into the blistery night - to bring the light of God to those around us, especially those who are different than us. 
The candle is not for us to keep - it is for us to pass on.

This past Christmas day, after we celebrated as a family, Barrett and I rounded up the kids and my more than willing in-laws, and we "hit the street," visiting our now "friend of the fam," AmyJo.
And I did it because I can't keep that Christmas eve candle to myself.
And I don't want my kids to either.
I want to teach them to SHARE that light of Christ that they already feel in our own family & at Sunday School.  I want them to take that light of the candle out of the church building, to a place and a person who doesn't feel or see the light, and to raise it high - so someone can see - so someone can feel love that they wouldn't normally feel.

I remember my first visit with AmyJo.
She was almost silent.  Wondering why I was stopping. 
Was I going to report her?  Tell her to move off the street?  Make fun of her?
I can't imagine what was going through her head, what people have said to her, or the looks she has endured as a street person.

But my family persisted.
And I tear up as I write this, but last week, she smiled at Leah, as Leah started talking to her, hood around her face, no agenda, just talking to a friend.
No, it was actually more than a smile.  She was "lit up" by Leah and Jared's youthfulness.
And Jared and Leah noticed.
When getting in the car I heard "Did ya see that mom?  We made her smile!"
Yup, I did. 
They brought the light, the candle, the love of God, OUT of the building!  And it filled their growing hearts with a joy that was worth talking about!  And we did it as a family! 

So we continue to drop off dinner, breakfast, cough drops, or $2 (coffee of choice instead of me buying it for her) almost every day now, and something has changed over the last week...

As my car pulls up, she smiles now - and when my car pulls away, she waves this little wave.
She asks me when we visit, "What's on your agenda today?"...
She says things now like, "I'll see ya later!"
There is this simple joy my family and I have from these conversations that I have trouble explaining. 

And as I told a small group at my church the other day, "SHE too is a light.  She is reminding me of how much I have and how often I get caught up in wanting the wrong things for my life.  She lives her life from a bench.  I live mine with so much more, yet I get materialistic... I get agitated over things I shouldn't...I become unaware of my fervor for things that don't matter to God...but for each moment I'm with her, I'm reminded there is something so much deeper for me to grasp in this lifetime, than materials, wishlists, or even my own goals."  She is making me aware that offering agape-love-kindness to someone with no expectation of getting anything back is not something I practice enough.
It's an unveiling of a spiritual center I can only get to and be in with God as the source.  I can't get there by myself.

I don't think I'll ever be able to grasp how much God loves me.
I just can't imagine a love that wide, that deep, that forgiving, especially with some of the crap I've done or willed upon others.
But I know that God does, somehow, love me, no matter what.  And for me to sit on that and keep it to myself would be a loss for my own family, my community, the world, and for those yearning to feel love, trust, and the simple joy of a conversation.   And so my family and I go forth, our own cups already overfilled - and so sharing them with others - hoping to overfill their cup... so they can then overfill someone else's, and so more and more and more and more people can have their cups filled and God's love - can be felt by all.