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TITLE: Eternally Lit | Previous Challenge Entry
By Judy Anderson
04/29/05
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It was to be my last Christmas with her. Christmas at my mom's house was filled with splendor, filled with lights and good food and filled with smiles. I was newly engaged (finally!) at age thirty. As usual, my mom was planning a Christmas Eve dinner buffet. Everyone was to arrive at dusk, just as the Christmas lights would begin their glow.

My mom had lost some weight recently. This hearty Swedish woman with beautiful skin and never a complaint, appeared to be drawn and seemed just a little quiet. She admitted nothing, other than success at losing some weight.

We were close, she and I, particularly after my dad died in his sleep when I was fourteen years old. We depended on each other. One of her favorite sayings over the years, both spoken and written to me was, "You are the sunshine in my life." Christmas was special. Even then, we filled stockings for each other with treats and small gifts. On this snow-covered Minnesota night I once again delighted in the sounds and smells and scenes of my childhood home at Christmas.

We had decorated her tree together and oohed and aahed as we did every year over each ornament. Each one held significance for us. She loved the old-fashioned tinsel and we painstakingly strung each branch of the traditional balsam tree until each one shimmered; reflecting the large Christmas lights hung around them.

That last Christmas Eve was a joyful one, as we celebrated together and spoke in hope and anticipation of the wedding to come. She said to my fiance, "You'll always take good care of her won't you?" I think she knew then and it would be only a couple of days later when she would admit to me her fear.

She later explained, "I did not want to spoil this Christmas for you. I wanted it to be so special."

Cancer was diagnosed a week later and she did not make it to our wedding. What a gift that last Christmas was for us! The sacrificial love she shared with me for thirty years lives on. It is reflected as I mother my own two daughters.

And, we too, reflect the hope seen in the Christ child. We share by example the sacrificial love He shows us. We wait in anticipation for the wedding feast to come. He will come again. We turn our faces up to reflect His light. We have the hope of the resurrection and the hope of eternal life when we will be together with the saints before us, living within the glimmering Christ light forever.

"The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light." Revelation 21:23

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