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Let your light shine㽶Ƶֱ

Column by Jim Taylor
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Christmas updated column by Jim Taylor. (Pixabay)

Every year around this time, I feel a need to update a column from previous years. This one dates from 2013.

The first Christmas after Joan died, I decided not to put away all the Christmas decorations. They spoke to me of warmth in winter, of caring and compassion, of togetherness 㽶Ƶֱ themes I desperately needed that first year of Covid-19 isolation.

So, for the last three years, a small ceramic Christmas tree has been sitting on a table in my front hall. It㽶Ƶֱs not much of a tree 㽶Ƶֱ about 12 inches high, dark green, with whitish snowflakes on the ends of its branches. A light bulb inside shines out through coloured plastic plugs stuck into holes in the branches.

If I㽶Ƶֱm going out at night, I turn it on before I leave. When I come home again, it welcomes me back, glowing softly in the darkened entry.

It never was particularly pretty, I suppose. But it㽶Ƶֱs special. Because it was given to me with love.

It came from a woman named Lorraine Wicklow almost 50 years ago. The next summer, Lorraine died of a massive brain hemorrhage.

As far as I know, she had no family, no relatives. Perhaps I was her family. She used to drop in at my office, when I worked for the United Church㽶Ƶֱs national magazine, The Observer. She always arrived at the very end of the day, just as I was loading up my briefcase to go home.

Internally, I sighed. I knew this would be a long evening.

㽶ƵֱJust a minute, Lorraine,㽶Ƶֱ I would say. Then I㽶Ƶֱd call Joan: 㽶ƵֱLorraine just dropped in.㽶Ƶֱ

Joan understood, and took supper out of the oven.

㽶ƵֱI mustn㽶Ƶֱt keep you,㽶Ƶֱ Lorraine always said. But she did, anyway.

Lorraine㽶Ƶֱs theology couldn㽶Ƶֱt have been farther from mine. She attended a fundamentalist church. She had visions. She told me about heaven. About streets paved with gold, and gates made of jewels. About the people she met there, and their message for me.

When I described her visions to Gordon Nodwell, the minister at the United Church down the street from my office, he said, 㽶ƵֱThat㽶Ƶֱs straight out of Revelation.㽶Ƶֱ

So I read Revelation.

She㽶Ƶֱd relate another of her visions. 㽶ƵֱDo you believe that?㽶Ƶֱ she would ask, leaning forward earnestly.

㽶ƵֱNot really,㽶Ƶֱ I would reply. And I would try to explain, as well as I could.

She countered with a text, invariably from the King James Version.

We lived in different worlds. But we listened to each other.

Still, whether I understood her or not, I know she lived her faith, 100 percent. She forgave me for my heresies, because that㽶Ƶֱs what Jesus would have done.

And, sometimes, after I had stumbled through an explanation of why I believed what I did, she would say, 㽶ƵֱYou know, when you talk to me that way, you almost shine.㽶Ƶֱ

Lorraine㽶Ƶֱs little ceramic tree still shines in the darkness of my front hall. It seems to embody the promise in John㽶Ƶֱs gospel: 㽶ƵֱThe light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never been able to put it out.㽶Ƶֱ

Someday, Lorraine㽶Ƶֱs tree will break and go into landfill. Until then, though, she continues to shine in my memories.

~Jim Taylor lives in Lake Country: rewrite@shaw.ca



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