Epiphany Lights--What Happened?

        The good news was that it did not rain on Monday night, January 6, the day of Epiphany, when we celebrated our Epiphany Lights!  The bad news was that the wind was blowing and it was the coldest night in a quarter of a century.  A few hearty souls, around 10 children in all, braved the icy elements and came to see the lights. 

        The temperature had plummeted all afternoon.  When the first children arrived shortly after 5:00 pm it was already in the 20s.  I had planned to build a big fire in my fire-pit and let the children roast marshmallows to go along with their hot chocolate and cookies, but the wind rendered a fire impossible. I set up a table next to the garage to shield it from the wind.  We did have hot chocolate.  We had enough cookies for 50 children! 

        To make matters worse, around 6:00 p.m. half of my lights went out.  I don’t know if it was the wind, or if the ground was still wet from the rain, but for the first time a circuit blew and the lights went out. 

        By the time I turned off the remaining lights shortly before 7:00 p.m., the temperature was below 20 and still dropping.  It bottomed out at 5 degrees early on Tuesday morning. 

        The next morning I took the rest of cookies to the Children’s Center so all the children could enjoy them.  And I read a book to my granddaughter’s class.  As the children laughed and smiled and eagerly shared their wonder and excitement during the reading, I realized that the Epiphany lights never go out.  They are burning brightly in the hearts of our children. And every light stands for Jesus!