The Good Never Ends

There’s these crazy Christmas lights hanging from the front of my house this year. We have resisted the pleas of our children for outdoor lights year after year. They’ve requested, and we’ve said incredibly kind phrases such as “Would you rather hang Christmas lights on the front of the house or get Christmas presents?” Because that’s an entirely appropriate parental response to their bright-eyed requests to hang shiny things on the front of my house that truly doesn’t need anything other than the front porch lights we already have in place. However, this is the year our resistance ran out.

Because all good things must come to an end–at least that’s what some quote somewhere says.

I hung Christmas lights this year because I want my kids to know that good things don’t always have to end. That sentence probably makes no sense to anyone other than me, but this is my article, so just let me have a little end-of-the-year nonsense, please.

I’ve avoided the ladders and tangled lights and general chaos of outdoor light hanging for years, but this year we said yes to the unanimous request of people too short to hang their own clothes in their closet and decorated the outside of our home with the wild abandon that only children can have in flinging haphazard lights every which way. (If any of my neighbors happen to be reading this – I’m sorry. I really am. Just know that December isn’t forever, and the lights will come down.)

I wish I could say the outdoor light hanging experience was one filled with Christmas cheer, cocoa, and caroling. But we’re real people, and real people don’t live up to the Hallmark movie expectations.

But the memories we made will never end as long as we’re around to carry them with us. Crooked lights are a calling card to come home when you’re in your 20s. I want to laugh around the table at the memories for far longer than we should, adding to and exaggerating just how aggravating it was to hang 3,600 light bulbs for kids who can’t even count that high.

There are moments in life I would do over if I could. There are entire days that I wish I could press restart and just have one more chance to do it right or make it better.

But somehow, the stories that always get told are the ones that aren’t entirely perfect. The best stories are the ones that show we’re human, that make us laugh 20 years from now even if they don’t today.

All good things don’t have to come to an end because sometimes we don’t even notice the good until well past when the story should have ended.

In my favorite story of all, there’s this crazy star hanging bright over a manger, where a baby should have never been born. His story that started off so imperfectly hasn’t ended. People keep retelling it and repeating its truth.

There are stars that beckon you to follow a baby destined to become our Savior. There’s crooked front porch lights that welcome you home, even when kids have moved out and have lives of their own. There’s meaning in the insignificant moments of our lives that are often overlooked.

And if these kids that I’m raising know one thing when they leave, I want it to be this: “There was good here. And it doesn’t have to end. Carry it with you wherever you go. Bring hope where it seems impossible. Love when you don’t feel like it. Tell others of the star that led shepherds to a manger. Because the good doesn’t end, it goes on in the lives of others. Don’t believe anything else.”

Merry Christmas!  POV