Dec. 8: Splendor - Rev. Adam Seate

10 You blew with your wind; the sea covered them;
    they sank like lead in the mighty waters.
11 Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods?
    Who is like you, majestic in holiness,
    awesome in splendor, doing wonders?
12 You stretched out your right hand;
    the earth swallowed them. (Exodus 15:10-12)

One of my favorite Christmas Eve traditions when I was growing up was following the Christmas Eve service at church, Mom and Dad would pile my sister and I into the car, and we would ride around and look at all the Christmas lights around town. We would ride by elaborate Griswoldian displays, filled with Santa, reindeer, and maybe a Frosty or two. We would see rooftops with more lights than shingles, and we would see fake snow having been sprayed onto windows. Of course, the car would always slow down when we would see a manger scene illuminated in a yard.

But before we would return home to a sleepless night, Dad would navigate our car to some of the more impoverished neighborhoods in our community. At first, my sister and I would make comments about how their decorations were not very pretty, and Dad said that we were looking for the wrong things. He taught us that in those areas where people had very little, they still made a point to put out even the most simple of decoration, such as a candle in the window or a nativity scene on a dimly lit porch. I remember Dad telling us that the splendor of those decorations was brighter than the ones we had seen earlier because they represented great sacrifice. 

During Advent, we are reminded of a God whose son took off the splendor of a king, clothed in majesty, to be wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. In the impoverished setting of a stable, the brightest light shone bright. As you ride around taking in the splendor of the Christmas displays, may it always remind you of the splendor on display over 2000 years ago in Bethlehem.