We get many different kinds of gifts at Christmas.  Some we asked for.  Some we really don’t want, but appreciate the effort.  Some are surprises; some are specific answers to requests.

But it’s often the unexpected that really touch our heart.

A friend, someone dealing with all kinds of challenges in her life, left me a gift at my door.  It’s one that I think is setting the tone for my 2016.

It’s one of those (and forgive the fact that I’m not good at this description) garden stakes that absorbs the sunlight, and then later in the dark changes colors.  At the top of this stake is a glass angel. I don’t know how, but it turns blue, green, red, purple…at night, in the dark, after a day of capturing sunlight.

I absolutely love it.

candlesI first noticed it working its magic this evening, which by the time you read this, will be last night or a few nights ago, but it doesn’t matter.  It was a wonderful, unexpected surprise.  Light and color in the blackness.  Beauty piercing the stillness.

I love that it’s so many colors.  And that it bursts through the darkness to shine as bright as any light during the day. I’m thinking it’s a sign of the new year.

We’re in this together.

We are so many colors.  

And the best gift we can give each other is to shine in the darkness. to celebrate the diversity of who we are, and to radiate light for one another.

Like anybody, I’d like my new year to be filled with wellness.  With good income and easy days.  With friends and love and less worry.

But who knows what is ahead…things happen.  Hearts get broken.  Challenges descend without warning.  People we love die.

Yet, could we….as this simple glass angel is doing…project a light for others to follow?  Could we remember that just our presence sometimes is enough to light the life for someone in need?

I hope so.  All I know is seeing this angel so filled with beauty in the blackness of night, fills me with hope.

A new year is coming.  Why not see it as an opportunity to really make a difference…even if it’s just a note, or a hug, or a smile for a stranger?

I’m going to try.  Because life is so short, and can be so hard.

But it also can be so wonderful.

And we have more power than we think to make it so.

Happy New Year…..Happy year of light.

 

“To love beauty is to see light.”     

      Victor Hugo